The View of the Afternoon
by NoTimeTeen
Summary: "I don't wanna talk…" Piper closed her eyes and moved back into Annabeth. "I know what I feel… and I know how you feel… If we talk this might end… And I don't want that, okay?" Serious Annabeth/Piper. Kinda weird in structure, but good in story, I hope. Not the usual stuff, try it. Lemon...s.
1. Chapter 1

_Chapter I_

The ship was flying through the sky. I could see only blue and clouds passing by across the deck; but I couldn't care less.

She was on deck, sitting against the mast, and that seemed to be enough to distract me. It was _so_ frustrating.

_Drop it already, Annabeth_, I thought. _You can't do this to _him_, not when you _are_ about to meet him again_.

The last eight months had been like this for me. It wasn't weird really; after all, Piper _was_ a beautiful girl, and I had already gotten accustomed to my body's responses towards pretty girls. I've never been able to explain this, not even to myself. In a weird way it never bothered me. My eyes would turn and follow some girl; eyes and brain would get to an agreement about how pretty she was; I would turn my head and flush, a nice face or a nice body would be roaming around inside my head.

At first, I thought it would be some kind of stage; it even felt normal with time. As things went on, though, I realized only girls and a few boys had that effect on me; that worried me.

I learned to ignore it. I could never stop it, but I was able to hide it without much effort; it felt so natural, that I barely noticed it anymore.

It all got better with time; I got a boyfriend and everything seemed to be going great. We spent two happy months together, dating. I still had problems to keep my attention untouched, but Percy seemed to have problems with his self-control about girls too, so he kept oblivious. And then, last October, Percy disappeared.

It was crazy. No one knew what to make of it. He had simply vanished; he went to bed early, kissing me goodbye, the night before; then, in the morning, his cabin was empty and no one knew where he had gone. Everybody started looking for him.

And then, I met her.

That day, in Grand Canyon, I barely noticed her. She was pretty, okay; that _crossed_ my mind. But my boyfriend was missing. I was almost frantic to find him. Even before we were an actual couple, Percy had never disappeared just like that.

It all happened very fast. When I was with her, at Rachel's cave, it started for me. As she was crying I felt the sudden urge to make all things better, to hug her; but I couldn't get myself to do it. Percy's disappearance was too fresh, and the thought seemed wrong inside my head.

She went to her quest with her friends and I went to look for Percy. A fruitless search it turned out to be. I could never think straight while looking for Percy. Piper's face kept floating before my eyes whenever I closed them.

I felt so bad.

Everybody at Camp felt bad for his disappearance; a lot of people was helping. And I couldn't get Piper out of my mind.

After rescuing Hera, taking over Drew in Aphrodite's cabin and announcing Hera's plot to bring Romans and Greeks to work together, Piper's reputation at Camp grew, along with my mental picture of her. By then, every minute I spent outside my cabin was a minute for my eyes to concentrate in finding Piper, or focusing on her cabin's door and wait for her to come out. Troubled feelings about Percy's disappearance hid in my head, making it better, somehow.

My eyes pulled me out of my thoughts as they traveled from her nice thin braids to her eyes, which seemed lost in mine. I blushed, realizing I'd been staring, but I didn't look away. It would be weird for me to be shy, especially around her, with whom I had shared so much already.

She stood up and started walking towards me.

"Hey," she said when she was close enough. "You look sad… What's up?"

I looked into her eyes and tried not to sound so stupid. "Hello; I'm fine. You know, just… thinking."

She nodded slowly and placed her right hand on my arm.

"We're on our way, Annabeth," she said with a sad look in her eyes.

She moved to the rail I was leaning on and bent over next to me, distractedly dragging her hand over my stomach.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I turned around and looked at the mountains racing below the ship. I was about to ask her what she meant when I felt her lips kiss my cheek and blinked surprised.

"What was that for?"

"Don't lose hope, Annabeth. He'll be there; you'll finally get to see him." She turned down to the mountains again, blushing. "And I'll finally get to know who I'm fighting against."

I felt heat gathering in my cheeks and blinked again. She'd been surprising me with commentaries like that for the last two months. Still, I couldn't help smiling at her stubbornness. With all the things keeping us from being together, I felt happy every time she said she wanted to fight for me.

That was still strange for me. Percy and I had known each other for years before going out, and the things he could say to make me feel this way were very few.

I met Piper only eight months ago, and every time we talked she would say something like that and my feelings went completely crazy.

I blinked again and tried to focus on the land beneath us, only to realize how tantalizing Piper's hand looked pressed against the wooden rail. After that crossed my mind, I got all confused and started arguing with myself whether or not to take her hand.

After a couple minutes, I hesitantly reached for her hand. Piper moved her arm closer and took my hand instead.

"No offense, but you've always been the slow one," she smiled.

"And you've always been the one who makes the moves. I felt you slower, this time," I joked back bumping my shoulder against hers.

"Hey, girls!" Piper suddenly dropped my hand and turned towards the tail of the ship. A minute later we saw Leo's head pop out from the hole on the floor, looking for us. A smile appeared on his face when he saw us. "You busy? I need a little help… Annabeth?"

I smiled; always me. He seemed to think I was the only one who could understand this ship's mechanism. I was, okay; I agreed; but not even I could understand all the things the little genius had added to the rudimentary design back at Bunker 9.

"Sure, I'll help… I was getting bored, anyway…" I looked at Piper, telling her I was lying. I would give everything to spend more time with her, even after our agreement. I missed her lips dearly…

She just smiled and turned back to the mountains. I walked towards Leo, thinking what I would do to Piper if we hadn't made that stupid agreement. But I knew it had been done more to her favor than mine; so she wouldn't suffer so much if all things went as they were supposed to.

…

The clock was ticking away on the wall, filling the whole room with its sound and drowning in it the soft hum that the couple of girls lying on the bed were making as they breathed. The dim reflex of the moonlight filtered through the white curtains and illumined the inside of the room slightly. At times like this Annabeth felt glad that her dorm room was so far above the ground, so that the streetlights didn't bother Piper's sleep on her shoulder.

_It's happened_, Annabeth thought. _It's really happened_.

For Annabeth it had been more a joy than a surprise. They had been anticipating this to each other for weeks now, neither bothering in holding back, of course. Last four weeks had seemed to fly by in front of their eyes. Iris-message-conversations, silences, stares, innocent touches, hugs, kisses; through last two weeks that had been pretty much the order that they had followed while growing closer to each other.

Piper sighed in her sleep and made Annabeth's stroking hands stop for a second as her arms moved slowly under the blankets.

Slight guilt crossed Annabeth's mind, which wasn't weird at all. As it washed through her body she guessed she would be feeling this way quite often during the next few months. After all, there were a couple things Piper whispered sleepily before dozing off; such things were interestingly related to the ideas Annabeth had had herself for weeks, and that involved them as a couple. To tell the truth, Annabeth had partially lost her self-respect when she had come to terms with her feelings about this whole situation; when she had come to terms with her feelings towards Piper.

Even with a missing boyfriend, Annabeth hadn't been able to help herself. And Piper hadn't been precisely helpful by kissing her four weeks ago, which had started everything. For a while Annabeth had tried to keep it going as if it hadn't happened, but when the second kiss came, she gave up; and now, Piper was snuggling into her side, naked.

Annabeth could feel Piper's head going up and down on her shoulder; she could feel Piper's arm lying across her naked stomach. She could feel Piper's body touching her everywhere.

Annabeth looked around, admiring the darkness in which her room was drowning at the time. They were in her school, in one of the last floors of the tallest dorm-room building. The last three weekends Annabeth had visited Piper at Camp, but since it had been exhausting for her, Piper had offered to come to New York and visit Annabeth, also having in her plans the intention of getting to know the city a bit better, since it was so important for demigods. As Annabeth lay there she smiled at the fact that they probably wouldn't be going out so much.

_I guess she'll have to come some other time_, thought Annabeth, obviously also contemplating the advantages that it would bring for her another visit by Piper.

Annabeth's mind was stimulated by the silence that surrounded her, and she found herself thinking about how thankful she was feeling to her parents at that moment. When they told her she would be living at school she expected a roommate; when she arrived and found her room with a single bed in it she felt mildly happy that she wouldn't share her privacy. And now, of course, she couldn't be happier, because she kept thinking about how it would be to have to explain to her roommate what was going on in their room.

In that moment Piper sighed deeply and shifted around on the bed, rolling on her side and turning her back towards Annabeth, as she always did. Annabeth laughed silently. Piper always said that she hated to sleep that way, but, through their several nights spent together, Annabeth had discovered that the girl always ended up turning around and sleeping on her side at some point of the night.

After thinking about that for a while, Annabeth's thoughts turned towards those nights that they had shared during the last three weekends. The expression "last four weeks" was one that had crossed Annabeth's head tons of times lately, all of them while also thinking about Piper. Those same four weeks were like a dream for Annabeth, and she was sure for Piper too.

For the last three weekends Annabeth had gone all the way from her school to Camp, only to visit Piper, which was weird when you thought about it; after all, their friendship had started barely a week before Annabeth's first visit. The trip was long, of course, but the time Annabeth spent with Piper was, strangely enough, completely worth it.

Despite how comfortable Annabeth was feeling at that moment, she furrowed slightly in confusion. She had no idea what they were anymore. Last month had also served to do that. Though Annabeth had known about her own crush since a couple weeks after she met Piper for the first time, she still couldn't believe all what they had done together as of lately. Hard enough to explain, but she didn't know if they were just girl-friends, or if they were already girlfriends.

Annabeth shook her head and looked at Piper's back next to her. Smiling, she used her arms to drag herself closer to the other girl, snaking her hands over warm hips and placing them on the soft skin of Piper's stomach, pushing it closer to her. Instinctively, Piper pushed her body into Annabeth's, brushing slightly her back against the blonde's nipples. Annabeth shivered and sighed slowly, pressed Piper's waist tighter into her.

After a few minutes spent by Annabeth trying to calm herself down a bit, she started drawing circles around Piper's navel. As she did this, she couldn't help but remember how enthusiastic she had been earlier with her friend. With that in mind—and a slight blush on her face at her own audacity—, Annabeth dragged her left arm over Piper's hips, and drove her hand towards the girl's crotch, cupping her sex softly and caressing it tentatively.

"Are you taking advantage of me, or something?" asked Piper suddenly, surprising Annabeth with her voice, which sounded suspiciously awake.

Annabeth blinked surprised for a moment and, when she recovered from the initial shock, pushed her hand further into Piper's pussy, earning a long moan from the other girl.

"Sorry, I couldn't help it," said Annabeth a moment later, not sounding sorry at all. "So," she continued after a minute, "have you been awake all the while?"

Piper's fingers took hold of the hand between her legs and moved it away, placing it back on her stomach.

"Ever since you spooned into me without permission…" she joked. "It wasn't nice of you to roll me in my sleep, you know?"

"Oh, I didn't," Annabeth answered amused. "You always do it on your own, haven't you realized it?"

As a response Piper turned on her back and left Annabeth snuggling into her side. Annabeth hugged her friend's waist closer to her, breathing against the crook of Piper's neck and Piper drove her own left arm around Annabeth's shoulders.

"I think you should stop stalking me in my sleep…" Piper said after a moment.

"I think you should stop sleeping in my cabin when I come over… You should also stop pretending you sleep in _your own_ cabin when you're with me… You aren't an Athena child."

Piper chuckled and shook her head against the pillow. "I know I'm not… and right now, I'm glad, too. Can you imagine if we were half-sisters? It would be awful… This would be _so_ wrong…"

Annabeth laughed at that, blushing slightly. Piper seemed to have the particular skill for making Annabeth blush.

When they were done laughing they just laid there, staring at the ceiling and sharing a comfortable silence. As they snuggled there, thoughts of their friendship started crossing their minds. Annabeth started to think further into the last month, remembering things that she always used to smile, but also to get all confused.

It all started almost four weeks ago, the first Tuesday of Annabeth being at school. When they started the Iris-messages, Annabeth had intended to pretend they hadn't kissed, but the late "calls" from her to Piper turned awkward: with comfortable silences and extended stares. First week went on and brought the first awesome weekend.

On came the second and third weeks, dragging with them two weekends and a bunch of weird situations and kisses. Last week, Piper had brought on her "I'm going to your school next week" show and left Annabeth completely stunned at the top of Half-Blood Hill. After a lot of thinking—and a couple of head-beating-against-wall situations—Annabeth agreed with Piper and told her all she needed to know to travel from Camp to New York, it all to try and "vary things a little" as Piper had called it.

Of course, after all the planning, Annabeth was sure something different was to come within the weekend, but even then she had never imagined _this_ to happen. After all, first thing you suspect to happen with a very close friend—with whom you'd shared a lot of kisses—it's so not to end up having sex. And such sex it was! Neither Annabeth nor Piper had shown too much experience on the subject, and even then, it had been the best night in Annabeth's life, and she had the hopeful suspicion it had been the same for her friend.

After their time of passion, a few hours ago, Annabeth had been a bit troubled and had, so far, got no sleep; fortunately, she had gotten accustomed to not sleeping so early, because last month had also brought on late homework -nights, which were what followed every joyful Iris-message-conversation throughout every day of the last four weeks. However, the resilience on Annabeth's consciousness was stretching to unreachable levels, and her situation had started to lull her. As soon as her eyelids closed independently for the first time that night, she gave up and got ready for sleep to assault her.

"Will you let me come next weekend?" asked Piper, her breath stroking gently on Annabeth's forehead. The almost-sleeping blonde raised her head slightly, barely opening her eyes to look at her.

"Sure, if you want to…" she shifted slightly and looked at Piper, more conscious now as she chuckled silently; "I don't think I'll be able to deny much to you now… You could make me come to Camp without hesitation, that's for sure…"

Piper sighed deeply, looking at the ceiling, "I rather come here, you know? You have more privacy here… Besides, I'd like you to show me around New York some other time."

Annabeth noticed the way Piper's lips called up to her, and she leaned towards them, kissing them softly. Even though they had kissed a lot of times already, this kiss felt different than any other for both of them. The kiss was passionate, but slow. It was urged, but gentle. It was heated, but even then, it was short. Piper broke the kiss, groaning softly and placed her head back on the pillow, looking dreamily at the ceiling.

Annabeth felt herself fall out of her daze and noticed Piper's right hand on her cheek and the arm around her shoulders pressing her into its owner. Annabeth looked up at Piper, finding her attentive eyes on her own face. In those changing-color orbs she could see n amazing amount of feelings, all gathered together in one place; all directed to her specially. As they stared at each other as they had done so many times already, Annabeth noticed Piper's desire reflected on her open-door-like eyes; she could notice her lust; her love.

When she figured out that last emotion, Annabeth felt a spark lit up her mind and it suddenly went out of control, turning into a fire. A need to cry as strong as she had never felt before assaulted her and a need to run away pulled her out of Piper's embrace, fortunately, in a slow, gentle fashion.

Blinking uncontrollably, Annabeth felt herself jump slowly from the warm bed. She heard herself mouth in a small voice "I, I need to use the bathroom" as she walked in as normal pace as she could manage towards the dark door at the other side of the room. Surprisingly, her mind's behavior kept her body's movements within the normal perception as she felt her hands fumble with the invisible doorknob for a second, before opening the dark-blue door.

As soon as the door was safely closed, Annabeth broke down. She fell heavily to the floor and started to sob uncontrollably, hoping the door and walls were enough to muffle the sound. Annabeth's hands moved to cover her mouth and she started to whimper with ragged breaths. Sadder and sadder thoughts kept crossing her mind, making it harder for her to calm down. The feelings that had been surrounding her for two months were now overwhelming her, downing on her with all their strength, crushing her to her knees and pushing her to the ground.

In that moment Annabeth could feel the memory of Percy's disappearance fresher than it had been in weeks, and it washed through her, filling her with sadness and despair. As it crossed her mind and body it left behind an aura of aftermath, making Annabeth feel as if a furious storm had just gone through, announcing a relieving peace that threatened to reign over her mind for a long while. As if in response, Annabeth's crying stopped suddenly after less than five minutes of her being locked in the bathroom; out of the blue, Annabeth felt her body move from side to side and she realized she was standing up, feeling surprisingly light in mind.

Annabeth's hand moved thoughtlessly around in the darkness, finding by itself the light-switch and turning it on. She walked slowly towards the mirror and looked at her own reflection through narrowing eyes.

Even after the couple hours spent awake in her bed, Annabeth looked like she'd had sex, which she had. Her hair stood up at weird places, and remained unnaturally flat in some others, showing itself with its most obvious I-just-had-sex fashion. Her entire body was now decorated with bruises and hickeys in several places. Her lips looked slightly puffy, which relieved her a bit, since she had thought them to be worse after all the action they had received throughout the night.

Her reflection smirked suggestively at her for a minute as she tried to take a deep breath in an attempt to calm down a bit further before coming out of the bathroom. Luckily, after her whole break down, her eyes had kept interestingly normal, no hint of crying was being shown. She washed her hand in a haste, just to have something to do, and when she looked at herself again, she smiled slightly at the feeling of being so mentally clear, which was something she had always hated; now, however, she was thankful for feeling that way.

Annabeth was pretty surprised for her loss of control: last winter break had been full of crying situations like this one, but she had never had one while being with Piper; the daughter of Aphrodite had always seemed to have an effect on Annabeth's mind, cleaning it of its bad thoughts.

After a couple deep breaths, Annabeth turned off the lights and opened the door, finding the room dimly illumined by the light coming out of the TV, which seemed to be playing some movie on its screen. As soon as Piper saw her, though, she turned off the TV and, though the room was now involved in darkness again, Annabeth was pretty sure Piper was blushing.

Before the TV turned dark Annabeth had seen a bulgy, handsome man on the screen: Tristan Mclean. Annabeth had never watched him act, Piper would never allow it, and Annabeth wouldn't risk challenging the threat; but she had willed herself to know the man's face, as a small effort to their relationship. It hadn't been useful at all, though, not so far.

Annabeth walked in the dark and lay down next to Piper. "Was that your dad?" she asked as Piper snuggled back into her side.

Piper slowed down her movement and looked at Annabeth confused. "Yeah… how did you know?"

_Crap!_ Annabeth thought, hesitating in her answer. "Oh, um… I've kind of watched pictures of him a lot since I came back to New York… He seems to be everywhere since his mysterious disappearance," Annabeth patted her back mentally, congratulating herself for thinking that. Piper though about it for a moment but, seemed to dismiss it, and snuggled into Annabeth's shoulder.

Annabeth hugged her around the shoulders with her right arm and smelled in the sweet vanilla scent of Piper's shampoo. As she buried her face in Piper's recently-trimmed hair she looked at the other end of the room, where a chair was sitting surrounded by wasted choppy, brown hair facing a large mirror hanging on the wall. On the little bedside table sat some metal scissors. _That's how the night started_, Annabeth recalled happily.

As Annabeth watched her happy face in the mirror, Piper was eyeing hungrily Annabeth's breasts. When Annabeth closed her eyes, ready to sleep again, Piper moved her right hand and raised it towards the beautiful mound, circling it and squeezing softly.

Annabeth's breath hitched in surprise. She opened her eyes and glowered at Piper's amused face.

For a moment their eyes locked and then they both broke into uncontrollable laugh. Piper rolled on her side and almost fell to the floor. Only Annabeth's arm hugging her kept her on the mattress.

"Don't be silly, you'll fall down," said Annabeth, closing both arms around Piper's stomach. "I kinda like your games better when I'm the one touching."

Annabeth's hands parted ways then; her right hand moved up to cover one of Piper's tits, squeezing and trapping a rock hard nipple between her thumb and forefinger; her left hand scooted down over her waist and caressed its way down to Piper's pussy, cupping it, her wrist moistening against the thin strip of hair.

"An… Annabeth," Piper breathed out, shivering.

Annabeth started moving her left hand's heel in a circling motion against Piper's clit; her right hand started caressing and softly squeezing the little nub between thumb and forefinger while she started kissing Piper's neck, moving up slowly to her jaw.

Piper started moaning heatedly as Annabeth started to move the fingers between her legs. She closed her eyes and turned her head around, offering her lips to Annabeth and pouting slightly to send a message. Annabeth smiled silently at that and complied. The kiss was surprisingly slow considering the situation, but heated enough to turn Piper on even more. Not knowing what to do with her hands, Piper just moved them to grab Annabeth's wrists.

Annabeth broke the kiss and looked at Piper's mouth as the Aphrodite's daughter opened it to say something. No sound came out though; as she was about to talk, Annabeth inserted a finger in Piper and curled it slowly. Piper's eyes rolled into her head and her eyelids fluttered as a loud moan escaped her open lips. Annabeth stopped for a moment when she realized Piper wanted to say something.

"Y-you lo, love to m-make me su, suffer, don't—" Piper was interrupted by her own hand covering her mouth as another loud moan escaped, caused by Annabeth inserting a second finger between her folds. Annabeth smiled widely and started twisting her fingers around inside Piper, making the girl squirm and roll her hips desperately.

Piper's mind went completely blank, too focused on the pleasure she was being given to hear Annabeth's soft laugh against her ear. Piper was writhing under Annabeth's fantastic hands. She wasn't the kind of girl who experienced too much, so saying this was the best sensation of her life wasn't much. Still the amazement her mind was in surprised Piper greatly. She could feel Annabeth's lips kissing her neck, surely leaving a new hickey in there; but she couldn't care enough to stop it. She loved the vacuum-like feeling; she loved the suckling sound Annabeth made as she moved her head up to kiss her lips again.

Piper could feel her orgasm approaching, and so did Annabeth. The fingers opened a little, preparing the little hole for the third finger, which arrived a moment later. When Annabeth curled her fingers, Piper couldn't stand it anymore and screamed loudly into the kiss as her walls tightened around Annabeth's fingers and soaked them along with the hand right outside her pussy.

Annabeth took her fingers out slowly and kept her hand at Piper's crotch, caressing it. Her right hand left Piper's breast, which she had squeezed and stroked all the while, and hugged her friend's waist tightly into herself. Annabeth started kissing Piper lovingly, her mind completely forgetting the breakdown she had earlier; any hint of fault vanishing.

They laid there for a while, Piper recovering her breath, her eyes locked with Annabeth's through the reflection in the mirror.

"What are you thinking?" said Piper after a couple minutes, her eyes studying Annabeth's face, barely aware of the warm unmoving hand still between her legs.

"Just… you know, I think we should talk about us, Piper," Annabeth whispered slowly.

"I don't wanna talk…" Piper closed her eyes and moved back into Annabeth. "I know what I feel… and I know how you feel… If we talk this might end… And I don't want that, okay?" Piper looked sadly at Annabeth through her reflection.

Annabeth nodded and closed her eyes, hugging Piper.

…

After her quest was done, everything changed at Camp; even my mind, or its way to process what my eyes saw. Whenever I was walking around, lots of memories came to my head and overwhelmed me; when that happened I would start crying and go back to my cabin.

It was sad; _I_ was sad.

When Leo showed Bunker 9, along with his plans for us to get to the Roman Camp, I was impressed that something so big had kept hidden for so long.

With time, Bunker turned out to be better as a hiding place than a simple workshop for me. It would be the perfect place to be, if not invisible, unimportant enough.

Busy Hephaestus' children worked all day long in their big project. Dirty, jumpy kids would come and go, working distractedly in things only they could understand. No one there knew me enough to be curious about me being there for so long.

The first few weeks in Bunker 9, I spent most of my time looking around; exploring the place. I discovered the catwalk one day, in the morning. It didn't seem so amazing at first. It was a simple, dark catwalk, with metal rails and lights that shone in the floor, illuminating the whole workshop below. That same day I discovered the utility it would be for me in the future.

As I was exploring the darkest zone of the room, where the tools were kept, I heard Piper and Jason cross through the gates. They were talking quietly, walking side by side. I had the weird feeling of alarm, as if I was about to get caught doing something bad.

I fled to the darkness of the catwalk and stood there, far from anyone's eyes or interests, all day long; watching Piper and Jason hang out in one corner of the room.

Everything had changed so much since they arrived. After their quest, Jason seemed like Percy's replacement as the star camper; Leo was occupying my very own place as the useful know-it-all; and Piper was like the exact thing Aphrodite's cabin had needed ever since Silena Beauregard died in the Titan War.

These new campers had done things so important and yet, they seemed to be collectively ignored. By then I was used to spend most of my time in my dark spot above the _Argo II_, watching everybody work on something while I did nothing but think.

Whenever I wasn't thinking about Percy or the memories we had made, Piper was the only thing I could think of; Piper's hair; Piper's eyes; Piper's laugh. I had never heard her laugh around me, let alone because of something I'd said; but I had heard her laugh around Jason or around Leo; especially around Leo, the kid seemed to know how to make her smile without much effort. Jason, on the other hand, seemed able to make her smile by just talking to her; whenever they talked, she smiled almost dreamily at him.

Those thoughts were always useful to bring my attention back to reality. Piper wanted to be with Jason. I knew there wasn't any chance for me to have something with _her_ and honestly, in that moment I didn't want to either; but knowing I actually didn't have a chance, made the fact even more depressing.

A couple weeks after their quest, Rachel told me Piper and Jason weren't a couple; she said Jason wouldn't go out with Piper before remembering everything about his old life. "I think he has a girlfriend already," said Rachel.

I was impressed, taken by surprise. They seemed to really like each other. I could explain the hope that surged inside me when I knew it, but I couldn't help feeling bad for feeling it, knowing I should take the supportive roll and be comprehensive with her about her recently-shattered dreams. Had I been closer to her the moment I knew it, I probably would have talked to her about the matter; but I wasn't close to her, so I didn't talk to her at all about the matter… or about anything, really.

After Rachel told me, Piper's behavior around Jason seemed different; colder; but more at ease, somehow; as if a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders, her delicate shoulders.

I found myself reflecting over it several times. My little spot in the catwalk was the best place to think, that's why I spent so much time there. I also learned a lot of things there. Most of those were unimportant, like Leo's habit to fumble with his nervous fingers when his hands were empty or unoccupied.

Some other things, however, were very important to me. Most of those important things had something to do with Piper; all her different smiles; all her different expressions; all her different behaviors. They all had relevance to me in some way.

One day I was leaning on the rail, watching Leo work in whatever his half-brothers needed him to do. I had been standing there since early in the morning, determined not to think about the depressing Christmas I'd spent at the Jackson's household, or Blofis', I don't know. Sally and I had cried for hours; it was awful. After that I had promised myself I wouldn't go to the Jackson's in a while, just to forget.

That had been my life like for the last few weeks; run away from any memory that threatened to get into my head. I felt mad at myself. I felt like a coward.

Leo was working on something big. A few days ago I'd heard it was the ship's engine, but what he was building seemed like something from Daedalus' laptop.

My eyes kept roaming the room, watching everybody walk around, bumping into each other's shoulders, too focused to realize who they had bumped with. It was fun to watch. My eyes, however, seemed to be more interested in the big gates. During the whole day I had found my eyes looking at the door several times, waiting for Piper to finally cross through.

I was thinking about that when I heard someone climbing the stairs of the catwalk. I listened for a moment and turned around to see who it was.

"Hey," said Piper stopping next to me. "I've been watching you, you know?" She pointed to one side of the room, a dark spot; perfect to avoid the light at my feet and look right at the place where I was standing.

"Hello."

"This is where you hide?" I looked curiously at her and she smiled widely. "I've been looking for you… all week."

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. "Why?"

"You look sad… I thought we could talk." She leaned against the rail, crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me in the eyes.

I just stood there, watching her with a stupid expression in my face; speechless. I didn't know what to tell her, so I just kept my mouth shut, waiting for her to talk again. The silence felt slightly comfortable until she sighed and took my wrist, dragging me towards the stairs.

"What are you doing?" I hoped it didn't sound as rough to her as it did for me.

"We need to get you distracted, Annabeth. If you stay up here the whole day… you'll go crazy…"

I followed her stiffly, enjoying the feeling of her fingers around my wrist. She must have felt me stiffer, for she stopped at the base of the stairs and turned around with an apologetic expression.

"Look…" She bowed her head, looking at the floor. "I know we aren't really best friends; I don't even know if you like me, actually, but I think we could get along, you know?"

_She thinks I don't like her?_ I thought to myself. _Oh, if she only knew…_

I smiled at her and shook my head. "Piper… we _are_ friends."

She smiled and started walking towards the gates again, this time without my wrist in her hand, which disappointed me a little. I followed her, still smiling.

"Hey, Leo! I'm going with Annabeth for a walk, okay?" Piper called her friend as we were walking beside him.

"Huh?" he didn't even raise his head to acknowledge us.

"You think he heard you?" I asked, looking back at the oblivious kid.

"No, I don't," answered Piper with a wave of her hand. "But I told him…"

I guessed that was a weird way of thinking, but since I was with Piper, the thought left my mind immediately.

When we reached the gates Piper stopped and looked at me, expectant.

"What?"

She chuckled and stretched her hand in front of her, motioning towards the woods. "Lead the way."

"Excuse me?"

"The plan's for you to stop thinking so much, so… Lead the way" she motioned towards the woods again and I started walking towards them.

I walked without really thinking where I wanted to go. I just followed my steps, hoping no monster would suddenly attack us.

"So… I heard you've spent a lot of time at Camp…" Piper trailed off, waiting for me to say something.

"Yeah… more time than anyone else, at least…" After that, I found myself talking about everything. I told her how I escaped my family's home when I was seven; how I met Luke and Thalia; how we had our share of adventures outside Camp before Grover found us; I told her about our troubled arrive at Camp, how Thalia became the tree that protected Camp.

We had been walking for half an hour when we reached an open space. As I got to my first meeting with Percy I stopped and looked at where my feet had taken us.

It was a big clearing the size of a mall parking lot. The grass surrounded by a circle of trees was almost completely yellow. The ground was dotted here and there with holes and scars; as if it had been used in a war, which it had; in the middle of the clearing stood a big, shapeless pile of rocks.

I felt Piper stop next to me and looked at her terrified expression, which disappeared a moment later. She turned her head to me and smiled nervously, her eyes carefully watching the frame of trees around the clearing.

"You know the place?" I asked her.

"No… well, yes; I mean, I've heard of it."

Of course she had, everybody had heard the legends about the place. Many campers had even made theories that said the place was cursed; it wasn't, its past was.

Piper tapped my shoulder and pointed her thumb towards a grassed spot behind her; she walked towards it and sat at the base of a tree.

I sat in front of her, with my back against the tree and waited for her to tell me the truth. "You've been here before, right?"

She shifted uncomfortably, looking back at the clearing again. "Do I really have to tell you?"

"Look… I know we aren't really best friends, but I think we could get along… Though, if you don't want us to… I'll understand," I joked.

She smiled and dragged herself closer to me. "Okay, it was the day before Christmas… you know Leo's walking table?"

"Buford?" I remembered the little table and Leo's attempts to get him polished with a bunch of different products a couple weeks before.

"Yeah… well; that day Leo tried to polish Buford and Buford ran away… from Leo's Windex… We trailed him to this clearing and brought it back…"

I put the pieces together and asked her, "So, Leo tried to polish it with Windex instead of the Lemon Pledge polisher he uses for little Buford; Buford fled; you guys trailed it here and brought it back…" at the last moment I remembered some other event that would explain Piper's nervousness; "and probably found here those Maenads you caught in a cage in Bunker 9… right?"

She blushed slightly and looked at me, blinking confused. "How did you know?"

"From that spot in the catwalk I have learned a lot of stuff…" I smirked and thought about all the things I had learned about the girl in front of me.

"Oh… okay…" she said and shifted to lean against the tree, next to me.

We sat like that for a while, just looking out to the clearing. A couple moments later I found myself staring at Piper; at the same moment, Piper looked at me and we both shared a comfortable silence, contemplating each other's face.

I didn't know what to do. I guessed it was weird for a couple of friends to stare at each other without either bothering to dissimulate; but as I was looking at her without anybody stopping me, I decided not to give it much thought.

She tilted her head, still looking at my eyes. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

"I _do_ like you," I said without thinking. I didn't regret it when it came out, I just prayed the unintentional emphasis on "do" wasn't as obvious as I heard it.

She blinked. "What?"

I blushed slightly and looked down at the grass. "You said earlier I didn't like you… but I do," I said in a small voice.

She chuckled and hugged me softly with one arm. "It's good to know, you know? It really is," she looked sideways at my eyes and I realized how truthful her words sounded.

"What do you mean?" I frowned.

"Well… you remember I told you I'd been looking for you all week?" she asked, contemplating the clearing again. "I wanted to talk to you… I mean, I guess you already know about my situation with Jason, and Leo barely pays any attention to me when he's working…" Her fingers were playing with the grass distractedly as she talked. "I'm not saying I've been lonely or something… I just need to talk to someone, I guess."

She finished her speech with a sad tone in her voice. I felt bad looking at her in such state so my stare moved to her hair. I didn't know what it was; it just seemed to charm me. I loved the thin braids she usually had; I loved the color. She had let her hair grow a bit since she arrived at Camp; it now fell to a point just below her shoulders.

I glanced at her eyes again and found her staring at me. I smiled and opened my mouth; however, nothing came out. Again, we had to wait a while to react. Her eyes seemed to make me stupid or something.

"You still think this was a bad idea?" When she whispered I realized how close her lips stood from mine. We hadn't move an inch for a long while, so she was still hugging my shoulders.

"Oh… it _was_ a good idea," I whispered slowly, failing in making a joke. "I just said your plans were awful… I still think so."

As I talked I had been sliding down in my spot beneath her left arm; my eyes were now at her lips' level and I couldn't tear my stare away from them.

"I think we should leave already." Her voice was raspy and low. I stood up and offered her my hand to pull her up.

"I'm going back to Bunker 9…" I said as she took my hand. "Wanna go back with me and supervise Leo?"

She laughed and nodded at me. "Okay, Annabeth… Lead the way."

…

Annabeth didn't understand why was _she_ the one that had to go "pick Piper up"; after all, Piper was more the male party in the relationship than she was. Piper was always who decided who went where to meet each other; who kissed Annabeth when she was unaware; who made the moves. Piper was who kept the ball rolling; and Annabeth had no problem with that; at the end of the day, she was always the one who made Piper moan and whimper.

_No one would think so from the outside_, thought Annabeth as she walked in front of the few cabins that stood between cabin six—Athena's—and cabin ten—Aphrodite's. _Of course, is not like _anyone_ knows, right?_

Piper had told her she had a surprise for her. Annabeth had no idea what she meant. She knew they celebrated today two weeks as an unofficial, secret couple; but she'd never thought Piper was the kind of girl who celebrated stuff like that, so she didn't think it had something to do with it.

When Annabeth was reaching Aphrodite's cabin she found Piper at the door. She was standing against the door frame, watching amused at the obliviously-walking Annabeth. When Annabeth looked up, however, her mouth opened in amazement and she stopped suddenly a couple yards away from Piper, staring at her girlfriend.

Piper was wearing a simple, short yellow dress. It hung from the straps at her shoulders, to mid-thigh, hugging her figure softly at the waist. She was wearing some black low-top Converse without socks, which made her look kind of funny. Her short, thin braids framed her face beautifully and the smile in her lips gave her whole appearance some kind of aura. Annabeth felt happy just looking at her.

In her right hand, Piper was holding a picnic basket. Annabeth walked closer and noticed her smile was kind of anxious; like she was excited about something that was about to happen.

"Hey…" Piper said as Annabeth reached her. "What do you think?" she said turning a mid-circle for Annabeth to see more of her.

Annabeth realized she still had her mouth open and closed it, shaking her head and blinking.

"You look great," she said when her mind was clear enough. She frowned slightly when she noticed how dreamy she sounded. "So, what's the plan?"

"We're going for a picnic," Piper answered, raising the basket.

"Where to?" said Annabeth, already knowing the answer.

"To the clearing, of course… Lead the way, Annabeth."

Piper lowered the basket and raised her empty hand, motioning for Annabeth to take it. Annabeth did, and started walking towards the woods with Piper walking close to her, at her side; their shoulders touching.

They walked silently for a while, both just enjoying the feeling of their hands touching; of their bodies being close to one another.

As they walked, they both started thinking of the last month and a half. Their lives had gotten better since that first day in the catwalk at Bunker 9. It all seemed to have happened so fast. In least than two months they had grown to be friends. Then they became closer, somehow; they passed to a stage where they could no longer tell what they were. There were smiles; there were stares; there were touches; there were kisses.

Then, two weeks ago, the bubble exploded and they started dating, kind of. Annabeth received Piper at her dorm room once more, last week; that weekend had been the best for both. Now, Annabeth had vacations. They both knew the next week was going to be the best they ever had. Every time they met each other they seemed to grow closer and closer, if possible.

Now after two weeks of afternoon chats through hand-made fountains in the middle of Annabeth's dorm room, they were the happiest couple in Camp; and yet, no one there knew they were a couple, except themselves. It was the most secret thing for both of them; it was, for them, the best secret.

They walked through the woods, silently, as usual. Not many words were exchanged between them, but it never felt uncomfortable. Being together, hand-in-hand seemed to be enough, always.

After walking for twenty minutes, they reached their now-favorite place in Camp. It was the same clearing where they'd had their first real conversation; where their friendship became official. The place was ugly; it was sad. You could perceive how much pain the place had given; all the bad memories that had been fabricated here.

For them, though, it was calming. The memory of that first conversation was enough to void all that sadness.

They walked a bit more, towards their "special tree", as Piper called it. When they reached it, Piper placed the basket on the floor, her hand leaving Annabeth's to open the little box and bring out a big blanket. They started to put everything in place mechanically, their eyes locked.

When they finished Annabeth sat Indian-style and Piper sat on her knees in front of her.

"What are we eating?" asked Annabeth, looking at the little basket next to the blanket.

"What else? Sandwiches," Piper brought out two plates and a couple Ziploc bags, handing Annabeth one of each.

They started eating silently, still contemplating one another. Annabeth smiled every time Piper bit her sandwich, cutely opening her mouth wide and closing it again around as much as she could get in. Annabeth admired Piper's lack of subtlety while eating. The girl liked eating her way, even if it looked as if she wouldn't eat again.

"So, what's the surprise, Pipes?" said Annabeth over the basket between them, after a couple bites to her own sandwich.

Piper just chuckled with her mouth full. "There is none… It was just funny to give you a reason to look as excited as you did a while ago, you know?" she said after she gulped down the rest of her sandwich.

"You're cruel sometimes…" said Annabeth, smiling down at her plate. When she was about to pick her sandwich up to bite it, Piper grabbed it and ate half of what was left.

"So, still playing, aren't we?" laughed Piper after giving Annabeth another sandwich from the basket, swallowing the rest of the one in her hand.

Annabeth leant over the basket, stretching her right hand to the back of Piper's neck, pulling her in for a kiss.

When they broke it their foreheads were touching and Annabeth could see beneath Piper's dress' cleavage and she noticed Piper wasn't wearing bra. She looked up, leaning back and raised her eyebrows questioningly. Piper just grinned mysteriously at her through her sandwich bite.

"So, there _was_ a surprise, right?" said Annabeth smiling meaningfully at her girlfriend.

"Well… only if you call that a surprise; I'd say it is a gift, you know?" She smiled and cocked her head to the side. "A nice two-week-anniversary gift from girlfriend to girlfriend."

Annabeth liked the way "girlfriend to girlfriend" sounded like.

"Oh, too bad. I brought you nothing. I didn't think you'd like to celebrate these things…"

"Then you won't have me," said Piper, jokingly taking a jacket out of the basket.

"But you know I like to show you my feelings in other ways than just simple gifts, right?" said Annabeth as she stopped Piper's hand above her jacket with her own hand.

Piper laughed softly and blushed, shaking her head.

They shared another couple laughs when Annabeth leaned in to take Piper's new sandwich from her plate, to which Piper laughed, looking at Annabeth.

"So, we're seriously still playing?"

"Of course," answered Annabeth before biting down the sandwich. "So, how're things going at Bunker 9?" she asked after a minute, wanting to know about the advances in the _Argo-II_-project. After all, she had just arrived a couple hours ago, so they didn't have chance to talk things through before Piper told her to come to her cabin in a couple hours and ran away.

"Things are rolling…" said Piper effusively, a sad edge to her voice. When she talked again, Annabeth thought she imagined it, for she sounded completely normal. "I can't really know where we are in the project's time-line… I think not even Leo's half-brothers understand what they're doing…"

Annabeth recognized that tone. It had appeared in her voice every time the conversation turned Percy's way. After that first conversation almost two weeks ago, right after Piper came back to Camp after their happiest weekend, that tone had been haunting the danger-zone of the future. Neither wanted to worry about what was to come when the ship was finished.

Their eyes locked and they sat like that for a minute; none eating; none moving.

"I still can't believe how much I missed you in just five days," Annabeth sighed, staring lovingly at Piper's color-changing eyes.

"You don't even know how it was for me," said Piper, looking towards the pile of rocks at the middle of the clearing. "I've spent more time with you here than with anyone else. Everything reminds me of you…"

In that moment Annabeth felt angry at Piper for sitting in front of her and not at her side, where she would have been able to hug her without any picnic basket blocking her way. She limited herself to stare intensely at the girl across from her.

"You ready for the surprise?" asked Piper.

"I don't trust your plans, so… I think you'll have to wait, huh?"

They continued to eat in silence. After Piper's third sandwich, Annabeth was full and Piper stopped eating. When they were over Piper seemed amused about something, excited.

"You want dessert, Annabeth?" said Piper kneeling forward and reaching for the inside of the basket, pulling out a couple of cupcakes and handing one to Annabeth.

When Piper leaned back, she shifted over her knees and sat Indian-style. Her dress rid up on her thighs and exposed her crotch to Annabeth, whose jaw dropped to the floor. Piper was wearing no panties and her now shaved pussy was in plain sight.

Annabeth's eyes opened wide in surprise and Piper laughed. "What are you thinking?" Piper grinned after a moment.

"I think you should have told me about your surprise earlier…" growled Annabeth through her clenched teeth. She could feel herself getting wet at the sight in front of her. "That way I would have brought a dress instead of my pants." She motioned to her denim clad legs with her unbitten cupcake.

"Were you really just thinking that?" Piper said, looking disappointed.

"You _know_ what I was thinking," said Annabeth biting her cupcake, still looking at Piper's crotch. "I want to finish dessert before we start…"

Piper ate her cupcake within two bites; Annabeth ate it teasingly slow, annoying her girlfriend.

While Annabeth chew patiently on the last of her cupcake, Piper crawled around the basket and straddled her girlfriend's hips to the floor with her legs. Annabeth gulped down and smiled at Piper, leaning forward to kiss her.

As they kissed, Annabeth's hands roamed over Piper's legs, finding their way under her dress and caressing her thighs. Piper moaned as the hands scooted closer to her center, circling her hips and hugging them.

Annabeth caressed her girlfriend's back lovingly as they kissed slowly. Piper's hands had been roaming all over Annabeth's back, sliding from her neck to her lower back and back up to her neck. Her constant moves had caused the straps at her shoulders to slide down to her elbows. Annabeth reached between their bodies and pulled down the top of the dress, exposing Piper's firm tits.

"Desperate, aren't you?" whispered Piper between their mouths.

Annabeth smiled teasingly and bent her head down to her girlfriend's chest. She started kissing Piper's breasts lovingly. Her right hand travelled lower to Piper's heated crotch, stroking it gently while her other hand was up pinching rock hard nipples.

"En, enjoy yuh-your des, dessert, Ann—" Piper's attempt to talk was interrupted by Annabeth turning them over, leaving them lying on the blanket, with her on top.

Piper's back arched furiously as Annabeth played her magic down at her crotch as her tongue licked its way down over her stomach. Piper placed her hands on Annabeth's head and pushed her further down to her center. Annabeth pushed back with her neck and endured the pressure, enjoying Piper's ragged moans.

Piper groaned slightly frustrated when Annabeth's hand moved from her crotch to the hem of her dress, pushing up and gathering the fabric around her hips. When Piper felt Annabeth's warm breath against her sex, though, she moaned loudly; she raised her hands and pulled her own hair anxiously.

Every time they had sex it was like this. Piper went crazy with every touch of Annabeth's hand to her body. Every time Annabeth's lips touched her skin, Piper went wild and forgot about everything. The only thing she could feel was Annabeth's body upon hers and the pleasure it gave her.

Piper's head was filled with a foggy haze. Her eyes were tightly closed as she enjoyed the feeling of Annabeth's tongue licking her pussy up and down and back up again. Moans caused by fingers inside her came out of her mouth and got lost in the depths of the woods all around them.

"Annabeth… An—aaaaa," Piper's overwhelmed mind went completely blank when Annabeth sucked on her clit, bringing her climax over her. Her hips bucked wildly and her back arched almost painfully, pressing her crotch against Annabeth's mouth, anxiously looking for further contact.

A couple minutes later, Piper recovered enough to open her eyes and looked at herself.

Her dress was reduced to a bunch of fabric at her waist; her upper-body had several hickeys, though, not all of them had been made in this "session". Annabeth was looking at her face, sitting with her back against the tree; her hands were softly caressing Piper's head on her lap.

"You… are… amazing…" sighed Piper breathily. She sat up and placed her head on Annabeth's shoulder, still catching her breath slightly.

Annabeth dragged her arm around Piper's shoulders and stroked her gently. As she was being lovingly caressed, Piper's gaze wandered over Annabeth's body, travelling over her slim figure admiringly. Her hands moved independently over Annabeth's hips, softly dragging themselves up towards her upper body.

"I'm okay, Pipes; you rest," said Annabeth, stopping Piper's hands in their journey over her stomach.

"No, Annabeth. _I'm_ okay, thanks to you…" Piper's hands fought their way out of Annabeth's grasp and went up to squeeze the blonde's breasts softly. "Now," said Piper seductively, her face now next to Annabeth's, "now is your turn."

With that Piper threw her left leg over Annabeth's lap and straddled her hips, trapping her against the tree at her back. Her hands grasped roughly the hem of the shirt at Annabeth's waist and lifted it hastily up, exposing a simple white bra. Piper barely gave her eyes the time to feed on her hands' work, for the bra got lost in the nigh bushes with an impressively swift movement. Annabeth blinked surprised and gasped a moment later, when she felt Piper's lips kissing her chest desperately.

"Piper, fuck!" Annabeth felt Piper jolt at that and couldn't help the smile that spread on her face. Every time they had sex Annabeth would scream things like that and Piper would blush furiously. Even after two weeks, Annabeth still found Piper's alarm as fun as Piper found unnecessary Annabeth's cursing.

Piper's lips travelled up to kiss and suck Annabeth's neck while her hands opened their way inside the blonde's pants. Piper kissed Annabeth surprisingly lust-less for the situation; the kiss turned both on even more, the passion only increased in the kiss and turned it more desperate. Annabeth's pants opened with a click and Piper's head went down immediately. Before Annabeth could understand where her girlfriend's face had gone, a moan broke out of her mouth and her eyes went blank and closed. Piper tossed Annabeth's pants distractedly away as her lips kissed their way down the blonde's body. As Piper reached her girlfriend's crotch, Annabeth's ragged cursing turned to moans, non-sense attempts to say Piper's name.

Piper started playing with her mouth between Annabeth's legs, teasing and caressing skin in a circle that surrounded the blonde's center.

"St-stop that al, already!" said Annabeth, trying to sound menacing. Piper smiled but complied and started licking Annabeth in a way that made the blond hold her breath and close her eyes as her hands pressed desperately Piper's head at her crotch.

Annabeth's mind was transported to an almost unconscious state. Piper's fingers scratched Annabeth's walls and the blond opened her eyes wide in surprise. Her body went out of control and started to twitch, her hips bucked wildly and her mouth opened wide as her eyes closed painfully tight. No sound came out; as always, Annabeth's throat got caught in the pleasure and went completely mute.

When Annabeth reached her climax, she sat up excitedly and started laughing as she reached for her girlfriend's face and took it between her hands; pulling Piper away from her crotch, Annabeth started kissing her slowly. They hugged lovingly without breaking the kiss and lay down on the blanket, softly caressing each other's bodies. Piper broke the kiss after a couple minutes and stared at Annabeth's face lovingly. For several minutes their attention turned to each other, nothing else seemed important enough to distract them.

"I love you, Piper," whispered Annabeth softly.

Piper didn't need to answer, her loving stare seemed to be enough for Annabeth, and the blonde hugged her girlfriend tightly, burying her face in Piper's neck.

Those three words were rarely said by any of them, even after two weeks; neither felt the need to say it, they both knew perfectly the feelings that were involved between them; they had known it for longer than any of them could say.

"So…" Piper raised her head after a while and looked down at Annabeth with a smile, "you still think my plans are bad?"

Annabeth sat up chuckling softly. "I think you're improving…" she shook her head slightly, "let's leave it at that."

* * *

**Yeah... I just couldn't help it.**

**It's coming sooner than expected, and the story's kinda stuck at the third chapter, so it'll be long until I get it done with. The second chapter's coming next week, and... I'll have to see what's coming for later. ****Read and review. Hope you enjoyed it!**

**Btw: I own nothing.**


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter II_

"Hey, Pipes! We're kinda going out, okay?" whispered Leo between the open door and the doorframe. "Hazel and I are—" at that Leo was interrupted by someone's hand on his shoulder. "Oh; hi, Percy!" his voice was nervous now, his face went out of my sight, covered by the door as Percy pushed him slowly towards the stairs at the end of the hallway.

"'Sup, Leo," said Percy distractedly. He turned to look at me and waved his free hand. "Hello, Piper; we're going out. Come on, Leo. I want to have a word with you."

I heard amusedly at Leo's nervous laughs roam back up on deck and get lost at the end of the hallway. The door remained open and through it I saw that Hazel-girl walk behind the boys and wave at me, then Annabeth's head appeared in the doorway.

"Hello," she smiled. "We're going out; Leo with Hazel, and I'm going with Percy and Frank; Leo wants some stuff for the ship; think you can handle coach?" she walked in hesitatingly, looking at my hand holding Jason's on the bed.

"Yeah, sure," I answered and dropped Jason's slack hand, smiling up at Annabeth. "So, you and Percy…?"

"And Frank," added Annabeth meaningfully, making me smile. She smiled back at me for a moment, but it wore off and Annabeth's expression turned slightly nervous. "I guess you want to talk?" I nodded my response and she nodded back slowly. "We _need_ to talk… _soon_," she gulped down and nodded again, looking at me. "As soon as I can, Piper; I swear… As soon as I can."

My gaze on her eyes felt anxious to me, but she smiled at it and walked forward slowly. When she was close enough her arm stretched and she took my hand in hers. Her eyes traveled from me to Jason lying in bed, and stopped.

"You seem troubled," she said in a small voice. "He'll be fine, don't worry."

I stood up and looked at her intensely. "I'm not worried about him," I said shaking my head. "If he were to lose his memory again, I'd be the less affected; especially after today. He seemed hopeful after his cold strategy hit Reyna back at Camp Jupiter… He's been talking about _us_ lately."

"Of course he has… there's no reason why he shouldn't." Annabeth looked at the wall behind me and leaned closer to me. Our faces were just a few inches apart and both our hands had intertwined at some point of the conversation.

"Annabeth?" came Percy's voice through the door. "Leo says we should hurry; you coming up already?"

She sighed and walked away from me towards the door. I sat back down and stared at the floor, feeling a knot in my throat. "I'll come back to you, Piper… and then we'll talk, okay? As soon as I can."

I nodded again, barely conscious of Annabeth's steps climbing up the stairs a moment later. I blinked a few times trying to relax and looked around me.

Jason's room was simple; a bed, a desk, a chair, his _gladius_ against the naked wall behind the door; it was simple. The arrangement of the room and its lack of furnishing seemed almost obsessive, everything at its place. Weird really, since Jason was a boy, though we all had barely spent time at our rooms. Leo designed them to be comfortable, supposedly. However, with so much to see whenever you went on deck, the little rooms felt oppressing in comparison: no windows, after all.

Jason shifted unconscious on the bed and I looked at him curiously. I couldn't explain what I felt for him, anymore. He seemed completely sure of what he felt for me now, though, even after rejecting me a few months ago. I didn't like thinking about it; to think _I_ was going to reject _him_ this time was a very sad thought. I liked him, of course, he was my friend. That single quest back in October made that favor for both of us, and for Leo, too.

I couldn't help but thinking that he was with me as I was with Annabeth: the one looking for something; the one willing to give something up for the other. Obviously, my priorities had changed in the last months. If he only knew, he probably would stop being so hopeful about us. He didn't even suspect, though; no one did. Annabeth and I hadn't been precisely careful, but our friendship —and relationship— had been pretty much based on "secret" conversations and meetings. Not that we liked to hide or something, but the places that we often visited, in which we spent most of our time together, weren't exactly public. The catwalk above Bunker 9, "Zeus' Fist" 's former clearing—since, nowadays, it seemed as anything but a giant fist—, Annabeth's dorm room at her school, even her cabin had been part of the list on vacations; all those were places where we spent our time talking or just staring at each other, as we both liked so much. To tell the truth, the general acknowledgment of our growing-friendship was as close as everybody at Camp had gotten to actually know what we had gone through.

As I sat by my unconscious former-crush I realized how much had happened since my arrival at Camp Half-Blood. _And now we're on our way to Rome_, I though a little impressed.

I sighed deeply, trying not to think about how frustrated I'd been feeling lately; all those regretful thoughts; all those planned-but-never-tried attempts to tell Annabeth to delay the start of the stupid deal; all those pitiful mental-pictures of the never-existing conversation with Jason about _us_. I had never been the kind of person to think stuff too much, so that explained my frustration.

"It'll be better if we start it now, Piper," had said Annabeth, "or rather, if we stop it… We both know that." Even after almost two months, her expression still gave me hopes. I had never seen that look upon her face; before or after.

And now it all seemed lost, somehow.

The happiness that her eyes had shown when she leaned over the edge of the ship and saw him, the way her face shone with joy when they kissed; it broke my heart. Corny, I know. But I felt literally wretched by my own feelings. I felt sad, sad in a way I couldn't suspect to be some kind of reaction caused by one of Annabeth's expressions.

And then, there was _Percy_.

I despised Percy. I hadn't talk too much to him since I had met him, but I despised him; or rather, I despised Percy's place in Annabeth's heart. The guy was cool in a troublemaker way; he was discreetly strong, as he had been described; he and Annabeth seemed perfect together; and that only made me hate him more. Don't misunderstand, I _did _like him; actually, I hated myself for hating so much someone who I had barely talked with. It was stupid! He wasn't a bad kid at all. I felt awful about my apparent predisposition to hate the guy. I wasn't supposed to hate him, not really. The plan was only to steal his girlfriend. Nothing more.

I shook my head sadly, mentally laughing at that last thought. Lately I had spent a lot of time designing strategies and battle plans in my head, doubtless of my probabilities to break their long-time-developing relationship. Now, however, all that planning and mental-drawing seemed childish. How could I fight against _that_? Wouldn't it be better if I'd just step away and let them be, just as they were already? Should I just take Jason's sure-to-come offering? Settle down with him? Hope for feelings that were no longer there to appear again? And try to forget the others that kept bugging my mind and heart?

And then I remembered Annabeth. Annabeth's expression when we were together, her smile with which she welcomed me every time I saw her, the way her lips felt upon mine.

No.

I _had_ to fight for her. I just had to.

...

"I still don't understand why you have to leave… it's just one week; whatever they teach can't be that important, can it?"

Piper was sitting on Annabeth's bed, in Annabeth's empty cabin. She was trying to convince Annabeth not to leave just yet, and to reinforce her attempts she had decided to wear a white dress that hugged slightly her figure, instead of her usual baggy pants and random t-shirt. She could tell Annabeth was trying hard to look at every thing in the room but her, which was a good signal.

"You know? With your stubbornness you're only making me think about inviting you over to my dorm room again," said Annabeth, still without looking at her girlfriend's attire. "I'm afraid you won't want to leave if you visit me again…"

"Of course I won't! I don't see that as a problem, though…" Piper jumped from the bed and silently approached Annabeth as she was bent down over the backpack that contained her clothes. "If we stayed together through the week, we probably would have a really good time, don't you think?"

"Yeah, sure. I would spend more time with you than in class; and that's precisely why—" She was cut at that by Piper pulling their hips together, with her hands on Annabeth's stomach. Annabeth gasped surprised and grinned, shaking her head. "And that's precisely why I don't want you to stay over the week," she finished shakily.

"Is that why you don't want me to stay over? Your classes are more important?" said Piper, jokingly pouting. Her hands were caressing Annabeth's sides as her head bent down to kiss her neck.

Annabeth closed her eyes and sighed slowly at the feeling of her girlfriend's lips on her skin. She could feel the heat rising from her center and hazing her mind, distracting her. She opened her eyes and turned around shaking her head at Piper with an understanding smile on her face.

"I know how you feel, trust me. I do more than anyone else would," she said raising her right hand to stroke Piper's cheek. She hesitated before opening her mouth again, for she was intending to talk about stuff they never talked about. "You know how important you are to me, Piper… but you… but we have to remember," she looked down at Piper's mouth, not wanting to look at her, "this might not last."

Piper hugged Annabeth tightly then, and buried her face on the crook of her neck, trying hard not to break down. She didn't know how to react. That's why they never talked about these things. Piper knew perfectly well how Annabeth felt about her. However, she didn't know how intense those feelings were, compared with those Annabeth had for Percy. He was her boyfriend, after all; that had to give him some head-start. Neither of them had really talked about their feelings, they both could only talk of what they had implied to each other throughout their short relationship. Which, in turn, had been enough to satisfy both of them; so far.

"I know, Annabeth," said Piper, her voice cracking slightly. "That's why I want to seize every chance I get."

Annabeth pulled away from Piper and kissed her girlfriend's lips lightly before turning around to continue with her backpack-checking. Piper watched her work for a while with her arms circling her waist. She was deep in thought, induced by Annabeth's scent to remember some of the fantastic nights they had spent together. As she remembered her hands started to move slowly over Annabeth's stomach. Piper barely realized her actions.

Annabeth's breath became heavier as she hurried up her checking and turned around again to look at Piper's distracted stare. She smiled lovingly at her girlfriend's expression and hugged Piper's waist with her arms. Piper's eyes cleared away and she noticed Annabeth's attentive gaze on her face. There were so many feelings in each other's stares that none knew what to do in that moment. Annabeth noticed Piper's hard nipples through her white dress and she felt wetness gather at her crotch.

"Do you ever wear any underclothes, Pipes?" she whispered hotly. Piper blinked a couple times and looked down at her outfit, realizing what Annabeth had been looking at. When she raised her head again her lips were smiling widely. She hugged Annabeth closer, pushing their bodies together and bent her forehead on Annabeth's, teasingly grazing their lips together.

"Always, except when you're around." She smiled widely at Annabeth's blush, her eyelashes batted seductively at the blonde. "I rather enjoy the time we spend together, since we might soon know when is it going to change."

With that, their heads moved at the same time and they kissed. Piper moved her hands from Annabeth's neck and brought them up front to caress her face softly. After a couple seconds the kiss became hotter and Piper felt Annabeth stroking her back, teasing her as the hands reached the lowest of her back, slowed down and went back up again. A groan came from the back of Piper's back and her hands left her girlfriend's face and dragged themselves over Annabeth's breasts and stomach, rounded the blonde's waist and slipped past the denim waistband. Annabeth gasped at Piper's playful squeeze and they shared a couple giggles, looking into each other's eyes.

Piper's hands squeezed a couple more times as they continued their kissing. Piper pulled her hands out again and placed them on Annabeth's hips lightly. Annabeth groaned softly and finally dragged her hands towards Piper's ass, grabbing it. Annabeth broke the kiss suddenly and raised Piper up in her arms. Piper gasped softly in surprise and circled her legs around her girlfriend's hips as her hands held onto Annabeth's shoulders.

"You love it, huh?" groaned Annabeth into Piper's neck. Piper just shook her head and laughed as Annabeth turned around and dropped her on the mattress.

After Piper fell on the bed, she watched Annabeth lean closer and stop, their faces just inches away, only to lean back again and throw an appreciating glance at Piper's body. Piper felt her blood rush into her cheeks as she looked at Annabeth's lust-filled eyes contemplating her body hungrily. As Annabeth's hands suddenly started caressing their way up her legs slowly, Piper gasped and chuckled nervously at her reaction. Annabeth lifted her head and looked into her girlfriend's eyes intently, a playful smile plastered on her face.

"You going to start or what?" whispered Piper, anxiously taking Annabeth by the back of her neck and bringing her closer to kiss her.

Piper felt her girlfriend blink a couple times before getting lost in the kiss. As they kissed, Annabeth's hands kept roaming over Piper; now on her face, now on her hips, now on her breasts. By the time they broke the kiss, Piper's hips were already bucking towards Annabeth's general direction, trying to create more contact on her unattended sex.

"Gods, Annabeth! I swear if you keep this up, I'll—" A loud moan broke out of her mouth and echoed on the walls as Annabeth placed her hand on her crotch and caressed it lovingly. When Piper's eyes cleared for a moment, she only had time to wonder how was it possible to have so much pleasure every time they made love before Annabeth's hands pulled her out of her mind again. As another loud moan threatened to leave her lips, Piper felt her girlfriend's mouth cover hers in a desperate kiss, sending the moan into Annabeth's throat.

"You're so fucking sexy," Annabeth groaned into the kiss. Piper could feel her everywhere; every part of her body seemed to be receiving some kind of attention from her girlfriend's touch. She couldn't think. Her mind was completely blank, for Annabeth's touching was always able to lift her up into the sky and take her to places she had never known; places she could only visit when she was in bed with Annabeth.

Piper broke the kiss and leaned back, squeezing her eyes shut as her mouth opened wide in a mute moan; her speeding heart sending shivers to every corner of her body as she reached her climax. Annabeth's previously-inserted fingers curled mind-blowingly slow inside Piper as her name finally left the brunette's lips in a heated whisper.

Piper could feel Annabeth buckle and her body convulsing against her own. When her eyes opened again, Annabeth's hazy face was staring at her open-mouthed. Piper blinked a couple times, trying to clear her sight, and looked at her girlfriend again.

Annabeth was breathing heavily, her hands still on Piper; her face was covered by a veil of sweat, which only made it look sexier surrounded by her beautiful hair. Her orange t-shirt was slightly glued to her skin and her feet were no longer supporting her weight on the floor as she had kneeled on the mattress at some point in the last few minutes. Piper looked at her questioningly and Annabeth just smiled back unbelievingly.

"I just came from seeing you," she said with a silent laugh. Piper weakly opened her eyes wider, fighting against her now-heavy lids as she shook her head slowly in excited disbelief.

Piper leaned down slowly and laid her head on the soft pillow, still looking into her girlfriend's eyes, her smile fading slowly as she fell into unconsciousness. Before her eyelids darkened everything, though, she was aware of Annabeth's soft laugh against her chest and the blonde's arms circling her waist.

"Fuck!" she heard with her eyes already closed. "I love you, Piper."

Piper woke up a few minutes later, blinking uncomfortably as she tried to see through her hair, which was still plastered in front of her eyes. As she moved her hands to clear her sight, she noticed her chest felt weightless. Being unable to see the sunlight through her brown hair, she panicked slightly at the thought of Annabeth not being there anymore. When she raised her head and saw the sunlight illuminating the cabin she sighed relieved and looked around, wondering where her girlfriend was.

"You turn on your side when you're asleep." Piper looked at Annabeth lying behind her and noticed for the first time she was actually on her side, facing the bookshelves on the wall next to Annabeth's bunk.

"I think you just want me to believe that," she said as she turned around to face her girlfriend. She knew Annabeth was a bit obsessed over people's behavior in their sleep, and she loved to tease her about it.

Annabeth smiled and opened her mouth ready to give her a very smart retort when Piper's hands moved to hug her waist, pulling her closer in the mattress.

"I think I remember leaving you hanging." Piper smiled and kissed Annabeth softly on her lips, slowly raising her t-shirt upwards.

"Puh—" tried Annabeth. She shook her head amusedly and tried again in a small voice, "Pipes, you know I can't. I should be leaving by now."

Piper just ignored her as she started kissing her again, smiling amused. Annabeth fought against the urge to kiss back for a moment before giving in and pushing Piper's neck towards her with her left hand. While they kissed, Piper's hand seemed to give up on their attempts on taking Annabeth's shirt off and moved lower, hastily opening the blonde's pants.

"Fuck!" said Annabeth throwing her head back as Piper kissed her neck. "Try and be quick, then."

Piper laughed silently at that. "That's not our style, babe," said Piper using one of the names she knew Annabeth hated being called. She kept kissing and licking her girlfriend's neck frantically as her hands fought their way inside her panties—unsuccessfully, so far.

Piper jumped on the bed with a throaty groan, throwing her right leg over Annabeth after desperately tearing her tight pants from her and tossing them over her head. Annabeth looked up at her girlfriend with a surprised expression on her beautiful face, her hand ran through her hair nervously as she blushed slightly and distractedly pulled her shirt slightly higher on her stomach, out of the "way".

"You're making me crazy," she whispered slowly, looking Piper in the eye. Piper smiled and leaned down to kiss her.

She kissed her everywhere. If there was a place she hadn't kissed at least once during the last two months, she kissed it then. Piper was sure none of them had ever moaned as Annabeth did as she traveled down her girlfriend's body, her lips never leaving the tanned skin. Her eyes feasted in every inch Annabeth had to offer. Her ears enjoyed a forbidden concert of moans and muffled cries, every single noise that escaped Annabeth's hands over her mouth. Her hands reached corners of her being no one had reached before, corners no one would be able to discover ever again.

When Piper was finished, five minutes later, Annabeth's eyes were wide; the impression left by the best orgasm she had ever reached, reflected in every fraction of her face. Her pleased body kept trembling under Piper's hands as they traveled up to caress her face slowly. Her eyes whispered words of love and amazement at Piper's stare. Her swollen lips begged in screams for Piper to kiss them again.

And kiss them she did, to Annabeth's amazement. Piper kissed her lips, face and neck, enough for Annabeth to remember that particular sensation for the rest of her life. As they laid there Piper hoped Annabeth's wish to leave soon would be the farthest thing in her head; that brilliant head of hers…

They kissed and snuggled and stared at each other for another twenty minutes, both still weary enough to sleep for a couple of hours. As they laughed and rolled over the bed, Piper realized it was getting darker and darker outside the window; and she was sure Annabeth had noticed it too, for, when she turned to face her, Annabeth's gaze was on the small window next to her bunk, above the thick bookshelves, and her eyes were slowly growing larger in surprise. A small smirk grew immediately on Piper's face as she anticipated Annabeth's freak out, which came a second later in all its splendor.

"Fuck, Pipes! It's awfully late!" she said to an amused-looking Piper, as if her being late affected Piper just as much as it did to her. "I'm sorry, love. I have to go," said she as she got up of the bed and ran on the direction in which her pants had gotten thrown at earlier. Piper smiled widely as Annabeth's nickname for her echoed on her ears.

Annabeth ran from here to there and back again for a while, gathering stuff from the floor, throwing them at Piper who was sitting on the bed, now burying everything deep inside Annabeth's backpack, trying to fold everything a bit, for Annabeth's sake. After some time Annabeth stopped in front of her girlfriend, looked hastily at the floor around her and raised her head again smiling at Piper.

"I guess I'm all set!" she said leaning over to kiss Piper, lifting her right hand next to her girlfriend attempting to take her bag from the bed. Her eyes closed and she pouted, leaning slowly. When she noticed how much she was bent she opened her eyes to look at Piper, only to find her next to the bed, struggling to get in her thin dress.

"What are you doing?" said Piper smiling, running her hands over her dress. Annabeth seemed to notice she was standing there staring at her open-mouthed. She shook her head slightly and blinked confused at Piper. "You didn't think I would say goodbye to you in your cabin, did you?"

Annabeth chuckled softly and took the hand Piper was offering her. "Thanks," she said, cutely tilting her head to the side.

They walked silently in front of some cabins. For a moment Piper wondered how other campers would interpret their walking hand-in-hand around Camp and felt like a 12-year-old. She blushed slightly and released a soft laugh at the thought. Annabeth looked at her curiously and her eyebrows pulled the corners of her lips as both raised slightly in a smiling expression.

They kept walking side by side, and though they didn't speak, Piper could almost perceive Annabeth's thought as if she were reading her mind; strangely enough, she was absolutely certain they were thinking the same. Piper could feel her girlfriend think again about what she had said earlier about this coming to an end soon. Piper was _sure_ Annabeth wanted to talk about it before she left; she noticed that eager spark that lit her girlfriend's eyes whenever she couldn't get something out of her head and was willing to throw her doubt away.

Piper wasn't completely sure she wanted to talk about it just yet. The doubt was crawling around in her mind and tormenting her just as much as it did to Annabeth, but she didn't want to think about that; she felt talking about it would only bring the end faster and she didn't want that. This whole thing was all too real for her, and she liked giving it away; she had started to notice Annabeth's guilt taking her sleep away and she could almost feel physical pain at the sight. She knew Annabeth wanted—_needed_ to talk about it; after thinking about it earlier on the day, she had promised herself they would talk today.

Now, though, as they reached Half-Blood Hill's top, she couldn't help the little bubbles of fear that exploded inside her stomach. Hopes for Annabeth not to talk about it started growing in her head.

When they finally reached Thalia's Tree, Annabeth looked at it for a moment, memories reflecting in her eyes as Piper watched her. She blinked a couple times and turned to look at Piper, taking a deep breath.

"Look, Pipes," she started hesitantly. "I know you want to delay this as much as I want to, but we _need_ to talk." She looked at her feet and then back up again, something like anticipation reflecting on her eyes. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out and she took a step closer towards Piper, taking her hands slowly.

When she was about to talk again, Piper leaned closer and kissed her, not wanting her to talk. "Look, Annabeth," she said when they got apart, earning a small smile from her girlfriend. "I know we need to talk, and I'm completely willing to do it." She stopped for a second, contemplating their intertwined fingers. "Leo thinks the ship should be ready by the Summer Solstice, and that's still far away, so…"

"You want to wait?" completed Annabeth. "It's okay, Pipes. I want us to enjoy this as much as we can… Before having to make a decision, I mean," she added worriedly a moment later.

"And I know we have to talk," said Piper looking deep into Annabeth's eyes, "I just… I guess I just want you not to feel guilty." As Annabeth opened her mouth to protest, Piper stopped her, shaking her head. "I know you have, and I don't mind. After all, Percy's missing, so it's only fair. However, I think it's not healthy for you to keep thinking about that."

Piper raised her hands and cupped Annabeth's cheeks, running her thumbs under her eyes as her gaze fixed on the gray orbs. Annabeth looked at her for a moment and smiled widely. "I love you, Piper," she said before kissing her. Piper's hands went around her girlfriend's neck and she kissed back passionately. Annabeth pulled away after a while and leaned their foreheads together, "don't you ever forget that."

"I love you even more, Annabeth," Piper whispered back. Annabeth smiled back and gave Piper a quick peck on the lips before running downhill towards a mysteriously dark car that was parked on the side of the road. Piper looked at her run away and sat at the foot of the lonely tree at the top of the hill. When she watched the car take off, she waved her hand smiling.

As the car disappeared in the ever-growing darkness, she sighed sadly. Every time they talked about it, about their possible "break-up", she was left with the same feeling of closure, like they wouldn't talk for a long while; like Annabeth wouldn't Iris-message her as soon as she arrived at her dorm room; like they hadn't planned on her visiting Annabeth's school next week. She had to think about that to relax enough to get up and go back to her almost-empty cabin, where she now barely spent time at, for it was always full of her siblings; though she liked most of them, spending time around people after Annabeth had just left was something she knew would stress her out. She sat there for a while, just thinking.

Half an hour later, she finally stood up. After thinking for a while, she agreed that they _had_ to talk about this; she was happy Annabeth complied in delaying it, but she knew their deadline was coming closer and closer. She promised herself—on the River Styx—that they would talk about it the very next time it came up on a conversation. Even if it meant ending their relationship, or setting a date for it to finish, they would talk about it.

In the meanwhile, though, she would just talk and stare at Annabeth through the Iris-message that was sure to come within the next hour.

…

Annabeth's eyes were shining against the sunlight, reflecting gray sparks everywhere; taking me in. I drowned inside her eyes, wishing I could kiss them whenever I wanted.

Her blush took me out of my thoughts, bringing blood to my own cheeks too. We turned away from each other, shaking our heads and dragging our hands from where they had been touching. As I looked down at Leo walking around I couldn't help but wonder how we had come up to this, for, as of lately, the awkward situations like this were so often seen; we were talking one second and in the next we could only stare into each other, or our hands would find their way and intertwine, or our heads would lean into each other's and the threat of a kiss would tear us apart.

The weirdest thing was the fact that nothing felt wrong.

For a couple weekends we had been going on like this. It hadn't really been a lot of time, but it was enough so that I couldn't think of anything else throughout the week.

As I heard Annabeth sigh next to me, leaning on the rail, I remembered how this whole situation was probably my fault, for I was the one who _kissed _her goodbye three weeks ago; I was the one who forgot she has a missing boyfriend, and kissed her either way; I was the one who decided to take the risk and throw everything aside, not caring what came out, and kissed her; I was the one who ran silently after her, tugged on her arm, kissed her and then ran away. I was lucky Annabeth had just dismissed it the next week, so all my plans for apologizing turned out to be needless.

But it wasn't the same anymore. _We_ weren't the same. I couldn't explain why, but I was sure Annabeth's behavior was different since the kiss. For starters, that first Monday was Annabeth-less, for she hadn't Iris-messaged me like she started doing the next day, and every day. Then there were all the silent stares we shared with the hazy mist through which we communicated. We could spend hours either talking or just staring, which I was starting to consider weird since I knew no one else with whom I shared so many silent situations.

The next weekend, after her first week of classes, she came back to visit me, which obviously freaked me out a little. I didn't know what to expect; would she ask for an explanation? Would she expect me to act like nothing had happened? Would she expect me to ignore the feelings that had grown within me out of the blue? I hoped not.

When I saw her appear in my doorway, I couldn't help the sigh that escaped my mouth. And I ran to hug her. Luckily enough, she seemed to have missed me just as much, so the hug was returned to me enthusiastically. We spent the day away from everything and everyone. We sat at the foot of the tree at the edge of that ugly clearing that seemed to mean so much for us. We watched the Hephaestus' kids work from that wonderfully dark spot at the catwalk in Bunker 9. We slept in her cabin… and I woke up with her hands around my waist, hugging me.

I freaked out at the butterflies that flew madly inside my stomach, of course. I had gotten to terms with my feelings towards Annabeth. I understood then how much I liked her; how much I loved her. I couldn't believe it! We had met just a couple months ago and now I was in love with her.

We spent a great Sunday. We talked, we laughed, we stared; everything felt great. And when she left, I couldn't help it: I kissed her again. This time, though, she kissed back. The way her eyes bore into mine after we kissed told me we were going through the same. We smiled and we kissed again.

And then she was gone again.

After that, I actually thought she would want to talk about it, but she didn't. She kept it going as always throughout the next week. Our conversations were just the same. She would pay the Iris-message and we would talk like we hadn't kissed more than once. We would talk like the last two weekends hadn't occurred at all. We would talk like it wasn't weird for us to stop and stare at each other every five minutes.

She came again last weekend, and it was all too much. I waited for her on top of Half-Blood Hill. When she arrived I almost cried out, and she hugged me tightly, and I hugged her back, and I wished I could kiss her. And we spent our day alone, and she kissed me, and I kissed her. It was all like a dream, indeed.

And we slept at her cabin again. And she kissed me goodnight. And wake me up she did too, with a kiss. I thought I was going crazy. This couldn't be real, none of it. How could it? How could Annabeth, whose boyfriend was hopelessly lost, be kissing me like there was no such boyfriend? I had to be crazy.

Sunday went off so fast that I could barely remember anything. Hazy kisses, tight hugs and ghostly touches were all I could find inside my head. And I could remember her saying goodbye, and kissing me, and hugging me, and telling me she would miss me. And I could remember the sparkle in her eyes as she left; the sparkle she sent me when she turned around halfway down Half-Blood Hill to look at me.

And then she was gone, yet again.

Last week was torture. I spent every day wishing I could be talking to Annabeth, even through the poor imitation of her created by the fountain in my cabin. I spent every day craving for her lips, which seemed to have become an addiction to me. I was so happy when Annabeth told me she would come on Friday night that I probably jumped around my luckily-empty cabin a bit too much.

"You've been staring at the same place for like… twenty minutes, Piper," said Annabeth with a smile in her tone.

"I bet you have, too," I answered her, smiling too. I turned around and she pulled me to her, burying her head in my hair and breathing in.

My arms snaked around her in an attempt to make the hug a little more innocent. As I felt her breath on my neck, though, I gave up and leaned down to kiss her neck. Her arms circling my waist stiffed and pressed me tighter against her. A moan that I couldn't explain threatened to come out of my mouth. Her silent laugh against my neck made it harder to keep silent.

"I missed you so much." I closed my eyes and felt her arms leave my side. A moment later her lips were upon mine and I instinctively kissed her.

"Oh, Annabeth," I said opening my eyes and looking deep into hers, "you have no idea."

She blinked a couple times and looked down, bending over the rail again. I fixed my eyes on Leo's work beneath us. A bunch of kids were looking up at him as he told them where to put whatever giant device they were struggling to hold at waist-level. I saw Annabeth's eyes shine with that genius light I knew so well; the same one Leo got every time he was working on his beloved ship. A hint of guilt was the other thing I caught in her stare, for understanding probably fell on her that the ship's work was advancing, while she shared silent kisses with me. And I felt bad too.

I turned to look at the gates, bringing recent memories to my head, intending to send some others away for a while. The sunlight shone outside, making the inside of Bunker 9 dark and grim. The only noises were the ones produced by the workers at ground-level, and the distant whistles of the birds on the trees.

Annabeth seemed to notice me staring outside, because she pulled my arm and led me to the stairs of the catwalk. "Let's go outside, Pipes," she said. We walked slowly out of the place, distractedly waving at Leo's "Hello!" We crossed the gates and our feet seemed to lead us by themselves towards the narrow path for our special spot at the edge of "Zeus' Fist"'s clearing.

As the warm breeze refreshed me, Annabeth's hand in mine reminded me of the last twenty-four hours, most of which had been spent next to this fantastic girl. The truth is I had always considered our friendship as a weird one, for we didn't really do anything. When we talked it was about some unimportant thing, and our talks were often replaced by stares and touches. We walked around silently, hand-in-hand, to the exact same places every time we could. We never spent time around people, and when we did, it was a few feet above them and not talking or acknowledging them at all. As of lately, our activities were based on making-out sessions and silent hugs. It was confusing to me.

When Annabeth arrived yesterday, I honestly expected her to not kiss me; but it was the first thing she did. I really thought she would want to talk about what we had been doing, but instead she took my hand and led me to her cabin, where she invited me to sleep in her arms. I thought she would want to stop this, but ever since I woke up today, she had been all over me; staring at me, touching me, hugging me, kissing me.

When the trees opened up and greeted us with the usual sight of the shapeless pile of rocks, Annabeth left my side and sat with her back against one of the trees at our side. She looked up at me smiling and tapped the grass next to her, where I fell down without hesitation, leaning into her.

Her left arm hugged my shoulders softly and my forehead rested against her warm cheek. "I want to cut your hair," she said suddenly, as her left hand tangled in my brown hair. I raised my head slightly and looked at her questioningly.

She laughed softly and shook her head slowly. "I mean, if you don't mind, which I thought not," she said motioning to my head. "After all, you did it last time, right? I figured you liked it better short…"

I smiled without looking at her and started playing with her necklace. "Do _you _like it better short?" I questioned.

"I think your face stands out with it short," whispered Annabeth. Her voice was so low, I though she hadn't meant to say it out loud.

"What?" I raised my head and smiled amusedly at her.

"…and I think your clothes would also look better with your hair short," she said blinking at the clearing nervously, but with her voice more confident.

I looked down at my simple t-shirt and my old denim pants, stopping on my black Converse shoes, which were probably my favorite part of the outfit. I never gave much thought on what to wear, and when I did I felt like a self-loving bitch, or like Drew, so I never thought twice on what to choose; if it was clean, it was nice. I smiled at Annabeth and kissed her cheek, trying to remain subtle, but she took my head and kissed me square on the lips, making me blush slightly.

"I didn't think you were so superficial," I said. "I don't mind, I could dress nicely if you want."

Annabeth chuckled running her hands up and down my arms. "Oh, you could? That's good enough, though."

Her hands snaked over my stomach and she pulled me by the waist, kissing my cheek soundly.

We sat there in the usual silence for a while, looking out into the clearing. After a few minutes I shifted around and slid a bit away from Annabeth, so that I could look into her eyes.

"So?" she said suddenly. "Will you let me?"

As I stared at her I dragged my hands through my brown locks on my shoulder. Hair had never meant so much to me, but it had grown a lot since I arrived at Camp. At first it grew thanks to my being too lazy to cut it; now it felt as some kind of reminder of all the things I've been through ever since. I pursed my lips and thought it over for a while.

"Yeah," I said after a moment. "Yes, you can." _Whatever memories are to come will be just as worth it, if not more_, I thought.

Annabeth's smile was so sincere I felt my heart melt, and though I'd been trying to keep it simple, I couldn't help but leaning in and kissing her. It was a short kiss, but still it had been the longest and most passionate of all, so far. I felt her hands travel on my body and caress my stomach, and I sat back, breaking the kiss.

The rest of the afternoon was spent the same way. Most of the time we shared a comfortable silence; now and again, one of us would kiss the other or we would just stare at each other. Conversation came a couple times, too; unimportant and short conversations. After a couple hours sitting there Annabeth stood up and offered me her hand.

"Let's go back to Bunker 9, okay?" she said as I took her hand. "It's getting cold." She hugged herself softly, goosebumps showing on her skin. I felt the urge to hug her as we started walking, but thought against it, for it would be an uncomfortable position, me being shorter than her and everything.

We spent the rest of the day on the catwalk above Bunker 9, in the darkness of our beloved corner, where we shared kisses, glances and innocent touches, as we watched the now-alone Leo walk around the machine shop beneath us.

The next day I woke up to Annabeth's face to next mine as she hugged my waist softly from behind. When I looked at her I noticed her eyes closed and her lips arched in a small smile, peacefully sleeping, I assumed.

My hands traveled to cover hers on my stomach and a smile crept on my face. As Annabeth's slow breathing stroked gently my neck, I closed my eyes thoughtfully, remembering where I was, for I had not recognized my surroundings as my own cabin.

I remembered Annabeth pulling me out of Bunker 9 after we realized it was dark already. She had dragged me all the way to her cabin and we sat on her bed for a while, before she took an old shirt and some sweat pants out of nowhere and handed them to me. I vaguely remembered us lying down on the bed and talking for a while before falling asleep, facing each other.

_And now we're spooning_, I thought sleepily. I could feel Annabeth's body against mine and felt warmness spreading from my back to the rest of my body as I took on how nice this position felt.

"Mmmh, Piper," whispered Annabeth against my neck, burying her face into my hair. Her hands moved on my stomach and held my hips closer. "You feel nice," her voice whispered into my neck as a moan threatened to come out of my mouth. This time, though, her voice was slightly louder; awake.

Her hands moved again and I felt her fingers crawl under my loose shirt and drag slowly over my naked stomach. I stiffened in surprise and stood up hastily, nearly falling down and hurting myself. Annabeth laughed loudly and proceeded to stretch her body as I looked around and noticed sunlight was reflecting yellowy on the wall, meaning the day was just starting. I looked down at her again and found her watching me, with her eyes full of attention.

"Good morning," I smiled. She just stared at me and smiled foolishly. A little laugh left my lips and I sat back down next to her. "You should close your mouth," I said jokingly, "it sure won't help your morning breath."

"And sure you won't like it, huh?" she said smiling, making me blush. I looked down, smiling and thought I should probably go to my cabin, to get ready for the day. "Where are you going?" she asked me, jumping out of bed suddenly as I started gathering my clothes.

"To my cabin," I said, tucking my folded clothes under my arm, "I need to take a shower."

"Well." She jumped in front of me, her right hand taking my wrist softly. "Take it here, I'll give you some clothes," she said matter-of-factly, turning around and reaching for one of her drawers.

We spent the whole day together. It amazed me all through the day how few we talked, and still we knew each other as if we were sisters; the only detail being the fact that sisters probably don't kiss each other's lips most of the time.

The sky was clearing out of the sun, darkly receiving the cold moon on its surface as we came back to Athena's cabin after dinner. Annabeth walked slowly around the room, gathering some clothes she had brought and throwing some others to her drawers next to the bed.

I watched intently at all her actions as she organized the room as neatly as possible while still in a hurry. When her bag was full and the floor was cloth-less, she turned to me and nodded her head, motioning for me to follow her as she walked out of the room.

We walked towards the big tree that stood out darkly at the top of Half-Blood Hill. When we reached its side, Annabeth turned to look at me. She raised her arm and her fingers tangled in my hair, which was still as long as the day before, for Annabeth hadn't shown any sign to cut it as she intended. Annabeth drew my face to hers and gave me the best kiss of the weekend. Her face was so full of feeling that I felt myself on the verge of tears.

"I'll come next week," she said in such a normal voice, that it served to calm me down as well. "Then I'll trim your head as I promised, okay?"

I felt bad, then, at Annabeth's slight weariness, which I perceived through her soft voice. "No," I said. "No, _I_ will come to you, okay?" I smiled at her dumbstruck expression. "You'll tell me later how to arrive, won't you? So that we can change things a little."

She blinked a couple times, still surprised and nodded with a small smile. I don't know what came over me, but I raised my hands, took the back of her neck, and pulled her into me, giving her an even better kiss than hers had been earlier.

"You better go. You need rest." I kissed her lips again and walked away before my courage blew out of me. I blinked surprised at my own actions and laughed nervously to myself, hoping Annabeth wouldn't give much thought to my suddenness.

…

"… Okay, look. The structure is a cylindrical biaxial braid, so it has excellent resilience."

Piper slowed down her silent steps and looked into Annabeth's room through the narrow crack between the frame and the door. On the mattress she could see Frank staring like a little kid at something in front of him. She took a small step to the left and could see Annabeth's laptop with some 3-D projection on the screen, her hands manipulating the board and moving the image around.

Piper looked at Frank again and smiled silently at his oblivious expression. She took another slow step to the left and saw Annabeth's face full of concentration as she explained something to the boy in front of her, not realizing he was getting nothing. Piper smirked, holding back a chuckle. For a moment she tried to listen at Annabeth's explanation, wanting to know what was keeping them from talk. After a couple seconds she gave up, though, and stared at Annabeth with a dumb smile.

Even weary she looked good, as Piper could see at that moment. Annabeth's voice was charged with that edge only Piper was able to make out. It was the same exhausted tone she had heard on her friend the first couple weekends after she started school, months ago. In that moment Annabeth's laugh pulled Piper back into reality.

"You don't fight _against_ the handcuffs. You push your fingers in, not out. That loosens the braid," she said looking at Frank. Piper blinked a couple times, thinking how much that sounded as some kind of metaphor, but finding nothing inside Annabeth's words. She shook her head and looked back inside the room.

When she noticed Annabeth and Frank didn't show any signs of stop talking, she sighed silently and walked back to her room, where she leaned against the door after closing it behind her.

This whole situation was becoming worse and worse as their trip to Rome went on. Annabeth and Piper had managed to spend a lot of time together lately, which wasn't helping her at all with their I-will-give-you-space-to-think plan. She had been able to avoid doing something stupid in front of their friends, but she was sure it wouldn't last.

For the last couple hours, Piper had been lying on her bed, trying not to run towards Annabeth's room next to hers and jump on the blonde. After their conversation and decision for traveling to Charleston before going to Rome, Piper knew she had to let Annabeth alone, for she would be thinking about the Mark of Athena business. Piper had tried, honestly; but when the pressure was too much she gave in and let her feet take her to Annabeth's room.

She wondered what was Frank doing in Annabeth's bed, when they could be talking about _important_ stuff; stuff that had to do with Annabeth's yet-non-existent plot to tell her boyfriend they couldn't date anymore. Piper shook her head at that silly thought, running a hand through her hair and sighing deeply, closing her eyes. She walked further into her room, trying to distract herself from her own mind.

Her feet stopped her in front of the mirror and she looked at her reflection, which was wearing a dark-red, knee-length dress over some black tights, just like her. Her head tilted to the side as she thought how had she turned from the careless, slightly tomboy-ish girl she was into this. Dresses like the one in front of her were the kind of clothes she hated to wear in other times; tights like those were seen on her only if someone threatened her to death.

Piper thanked herself for not wearing shoes, for she was sure those would have made her appearance even less Piper-ish. Her face turned slightly pink at the memory of what had brought her to change her style completely. Blood ran towards her cheeks as she remembered the utility she had found months ago in this kind of dresses. The coldness of the room reflected upon her uncovered crotch, only making her flush even deeper as she felt herself starting to hyperventilate.

Dinner-bell rang then and Piper jumped to the door, opening it ever so slowly, trying to look into the darkness. She could see the yellow light coming out of Annabeth's room growing on the opposite wall as the door opened. A big shadow moved inside the room and stopped at the entrance. Piper walked silently into the hallway and hid in the shadows, attentively gazing at the other doors, making sure no one came out.

"Maybe…maybe later," said Frank, presumably looking at Annabeth from under the doorframe. Piper blinked a couple times and jumped back into her room, realizing the big boy was about to leave.

She cursed silently as she struggled to find some normal shoes among her few derivations of footwear, coming out only with her casual slippers; deciding against them, she reached out and pulled some red low-tops she could discover through the dark floor under her bunk. By the time Piper poked her head into the hallway again, Frank was nowhere to be seen, Annabeth's door was closed and Hazel was walking through the hallway in front of Piper's own door.

"Hey," she said. Piper caught an edge in her voice that she couldn't understand, and blinked at Hazel's knowing smile.

Piper stood there for a minute and then shook her head dismissively at Hazel's actions. She walked slowly towards Annabeth's door, encouraged by the thin line that shone brightly on the hallway, and that escaped from the crack beneath the door. She stopped, breathed a couple times and ran her hands over her dress, trying to smooth it as much as possible.

When she was about to knock, the door opened and Annabeth came out with her nose buried in some book. Piper tried to jump to one side, but it was too late and they crashed into each other. Annabeth's book flew from her hands as she held Piper's arms, blinking in surprise. Piper's arms went around her friend's waist and Annabeth lost her balance, making them fall into her own room.

Piper felt Annabeth's body press against the floor under her own weight and felt a blush coloring her cheeks again. Annabeth cursed under her breath and whispered something unintelligible in a hasty fashion.

"What?" whispered Piper.

"I—" Annabeth stopped at the sound of a door opening farther left on the hallway, signaling Percy was on his way. Piper felt a soft hand cover her mouth as someone walked loudly down the corridor. Piper's heart started beating faster in her chest for some reason. Annabeth's left hand tapped calmly Piper's waist a couple times as they heard the steps climb up the stairs. After a couple seconds the hand on Piper's mouth crawled away and settled on her neck.

"Piper?" asked Annabeth slowly. Piper sighed loudly and Annabeth seemed to take that as a yes, for she laughed amused at their situation. "I guess your 'plan' to keep your hands off me isn't working, huh?"

"It's not my fault!" answered Piper heatedly as she pushed against the floor, trying to get up. "I was about to knock when you pulled me and made me fall." Annabeth moved both her hands to Piper's waist and held her against her for a couple seconds before letting her get up.

Annabeth chuckled, still on the floor, as she dramatically rolled over, holding her sides. Piper groaned and pouted at Annabeth, who started to get up.

"I'm guessing you want to talk, right? Again," said Annabeth, now in front of her friend.

"Well, I wanted; twenty minutes ago, as you talked to Frank," whined Piper walking out the door and struggling to find Annabeth in the darkness. "Why is it that this hallway's always so dark? Didn't Leo think in putting lights?"

"Actually," said Annabeth's voice at the end of the aisle, "he did." There was a low click and some dim yellow lights were switched on, illuminating the hallway.

Piper blinked a couple times and looked at Annabeth standing there with her usual "Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and dark-blue pants" outfit. She smiled and walked closer.

"So, you wanna talk?" asked Annabeth.

"Not anymore," said Piper, approaching her friend with a sway on her hips—which looked kind of funny, since Piper's seduction strategy had always been terrible—and her hands fumbling with one of her thin braids on her right shoulder.

Annabeth laughed amusedly at Piper and opened her arms, reaching for her friend. "So, you want to do—what exactly?" She hugged Piper's waist and brought their faces close, teasingly pouting her lips.

Piper opened her mouth, struggling with her nervousness as she attempted to say something sexy, obviously failing. She groaned and shook her head angrily, taking one step away from Annabeth's embrace.

"Sorry," she said to the floor. "I'm not supposed to do this; it's only making it harder." She sighed deeply and tried to calm down. "It's so hard already and I'm only—"

Annabeth interrupted her by leaning in and kissing her lips softly, while hugging her tightly. Piper closed her eyes and kissed back instinctively, the arms around her waist bringing her warm memories of peaceful, happier times.

After a moment Annabeth broke the kiss and stared longingly at Piper's eyes. "Come to my room after dinner," she said suddenly. "I think we've waited enough for breaking the rules, huh?" After that she just ran up the stairs and left Piper with a stupid expression on her face and an annoying tingle between her legs.

After talking for a while on deck, they all went down to the Mess Hall to eat. All throughout dinner, Piper had to stand the overwhelming feeling of anticipation as she ate as fast as possible. Of course, she also tried her hardest not to look at Annabeth, for she was sure it would only make the excitement unbearable.

Dinner flew by hastily and after just a couple of absent-minded swallows of a couple different dishes, Piper felt full. She ran to her room before anyone could ask her anything and took her tights off, guessing her clichéd attire—colorful summer dress—would make Annabeth as happy as it did in other times.

Looking at her reflection once more, Piper noticed her face was completely red. She chuckled silently to herself and tried to breathe a couple times. Falling to her bed on her back, she sighed contently and rubbed her sides longingly; the butterflies flying around in her stomach felt now so normal, she no longer thought about the cause of their craziness.

Piper remembered how her relationship with Annabeth had developed; though, she could hardly remember when her feelings for her had become stronger.

It all started in Rachel's cave back at Camp. Piper remembered crying like a little girl over the Jason-is-my-boyfriend fantasy. That first day, Piper thought she had found herself a good friend; someone who would be able to do what Leo and fake-memory-Jason couldn't, for Annabeth was her _girl_ friend.

Whenever she thought about it, Piper felt kind of pathetic. Over her life she had always found it hard to make friends with other girls and though it didn't seem to have changed, Annabeth becoming her girlfriend and all was kind of sad: she was able to find a good friend her first day at Camp and had managed to spoil their friendship by "kissing her goodbye", which had certainly been the first bit for the whole change to happen.

After her quest with Leo and Jason, Piper also managed to stand out because of her I-beat-Drew thing; and her Jason-rejected-me-after-all business, did nothing to improve the situation. She found herself needing to talk to someone; the ideal person for it being Annabeth, who also seemed to be avoiding her since they had figured out Hera's plot.

Piper tried hard to talk to her, but Annabeth became some kind of partial character at Camp, for she was no longer there, as it seemed. You could see her at breakfast, lunch, dinner, or whenever you ate, but besides those times, she just vanished. Nobody knew where she hid, or where she went to; nobody seemed worried at all, actually. But Piper tried.

After some researching and following, she finally was able to talk with Annabeth for the first time since she got back to Camp. From that first conversation on, everything was confusing. Piper could remember herself thinking just how good a friend she had found, and next she was able to remember nothing except the thoughtless kiss they shared on top of Half-Blood Hill.

They kept it on for three quick weekends; the stares, the touches, the kisses. Until Piper went to Annabeth's dorm room, intending to know New York with Annabeth by the end of the weekend. That weekend was like the climax of their whole story; unfortunately, the "and they lived happily ever after" end didn't come; and so far, it hadn't.

Piper heard Annabeth's door close and she stood up, still thinking on those wonderful two days. She looked at herself in the mirror once again and walked out the door, clearing her mind from those memories that served only to make her long the last two months had never happened.

Piper opened her door and wished Annabeth hadn't switched on the lights earlier, for the hallway seemed safer under darkness' effect. She walked as silently as possible while still in a normal pace. When she stopped in front of Annabeth's door, she wondered if she should knock. Her ear rested against the wood for a second and she could hear someone bumping their head against it on the other side. A silent laugh escaped her lips and she pushed the door open, finding the room in complete darkness.

"Annabeth?" Piper whispered, closing the door behind her. "What did you want me here for?" A smirk spread slowly on her lips at her own words, for she knew well what the plan was. She took a couple steps forward, towards the bed and felt someone breathing behind her, next to the door.

When she was about to turn around a couple arms circled her hips and pulled her back. Piper gasped softly at Annabeth's body pressing against her own and leaned into her friend.

"I've missed you, Pipes," whispered Annabeth's voice against her ear. "Gods, you have no idea how much."

Piper's words got caught in the back of her throat when she felt Annabeth's lips on her shoulder. A small whimper echoed through Piper and her body shivered. Annabeth released a little laugh as she gave Piper's neck an open-mouthed kiss. Her hands were caressing up and down over Piper's front, pulling her dress slightly higher on her hips.

"Annabeth," sighed Piper painfully slow. Her body started to tremble violently when the blonde's hands reached Piper's center; only to pat it softly and travel up again.

Piper let out a groan of frustration and turned around, suddenly kissing Annabeth. The blonde blinked into the dark shadow that was her friend's face and kissed back after a couple seconds. Piper's hands snaked around Annabeth and stopped at her waist. A long moan came from Annabeth's throat and into their kiss as Piper drove her hands up Annabeth's shirt slowly, caressing her back.

"You were ready to sleep, weren't you?" whispered heatedly Piper as her hands found Annabeth bra-less. She started kissing Annabeth's neck as the blonde's low whimpers echoed softly on the walls.

"Fuck, Pipes!" Annabeth's whisper was ragged, as if she was out of breath. She leaned her head to the side, allowing Piper more room to cover with wet kisses.

Piper drowned herself in the tanned skin that she could barely make out through the darkness. She felt herself become wild as her hands took a mind of themselves and started pulling violently from the straps at Annabeth's shoulders, desperately trying to tear the t-shirt off her body. Her mind turned completely blank as the scent of Annabeth's body filled her mind and hazed her thoughts.

Piper's mind was so overwhelmed by excitement that she barely noticed her arms being raised and her dress being pulled over her head. Piper pushed her hands between their bodies, stroking Annabeth's neck, breasts and stomach, and pulled them up again, now carrying the hem of Annabeth's small shirt with them. Within seconds, Piper's hasty hands had Annabeth naked, her pants and shirt were now lost amongst the darkness that veiled the floor. Slow steps could be heard on the other side of the door, but neither minded, for they knew it was safely closed. Their attempt to keep quiet almost failed as Piper smirked and pushed Annabeth down on the bed with her hands firmly holding her waist.

"Fuck!" Piper laughed silently at Annabeth's desperate cursing. As her hands traveled teasingly over her girlfriend's body, Piper took on the position they were in. Annabeth was now lying on her back—barely, since it was arching violently at Piper's touch—, her hands were pressed over her mouth, trying to muffle the loud moans that kept threatening to come out; Piper was kneeling over Annabeth, with her hands roaming everywhere and her forehead pressed on the pillow, next to Annabeth's head, holding her body up as she kissed and marked her friend's neck.

Piper hesitated for a moment, feeling a weird thought coming into her head. She didn't know what that idea meant and before she could think it through, Annabeth's low whimper distracted her, and her attention shifted, going back into what it had been a couple minutes ago: Annabeth's pleasure.

Her hands reassumed the exploring of the body they already knew so well. As Piper traced every curve Annabeth's body had to offer with her fingertips, she started kissing her way down over her chest and stomach. Annabeth's breathing stopped for a second, as if she was enduring an overwhelming pressure on her lungs. As Piper kissed Annabeth's breasts lovingly, she noticed how fast the blonde's heart beating was. A wide smile spread on her lips and a sudden wish to see her friend's expression surged upon her chest. The urge to jump away and turn the lights on pulled on Piper, but she concentrated on the girl lying beneath her.

"You're so hot, Annabeth!" Piper was surprised at her own appraisal, which sounded very Annabeth-ish. Usually Piper was the conservative one; the one that received and blushed at the hot comments.

Annabeth's loud answer to Piper's words was silenced by her hands over her lips. Piper could perceive a little laugh from the girl under her as she continued tracing the path with her kisses.

When she finally reached Annabeth's crotch, the darkness kept her from seeing anything, but she still knew exactly where to direct her tongue. A small moan came out of her mouth when she tasted Annabeth's juices for the first time in two months.

"Gods, I can't believe how much I've missed you!" whispered Piper into the darkness, not sure herself if it had been directed at the spot in front of her, or at the girl who owned it. Her hands started playing with Annabeth's hard nipples, earning all kinds of sounds from the subject of her treatment.

Piper kissed lovingly the invisible thighs that were pressing themselves against her ears. Her head lowered into Annabeth and was swallowed by the darkness. Annabeth's hands pushed Piper's head suddenly as her eyes shot open and her teeth bit her lower lip, trying to keep inside the scream that was about to leave them. Annabeth went crazy at Piper's licking and within minutes her hips were buckling uncontrollably into Piper's face, her hands were now pressing a pillow into her head as she bit on the white fabric forcefully.

After her climax, Annabeth found herself sitting up and pulling Piper's face into hers. As they shared a long kiss, Annabeth released a little laugh, impressed at how intense her orgasm had been. Piper laid face-down on Annabeth's shoulder and placed her hands firmly around the blonde's stomach. When their breathing got back to normal, Annabeth started stroking her friend's body, only to be stopped a moment later.

"Stop it, Annabeth," whispered Piper. "I'm alright." Annabeth, too exhausted to stay awake, nodded and within minutes dozed off, oblivious to Piper's troubled tone.

As she lay there, Piper was assaulted again by the thought that had been forgotten earlier. Guilt, now she knew.

Annabeth and her had spent three months dating—or something like that—and they had been very happy. Piper's unfamiliarity with _the_ Percy Jackson had kept her from feeling guilty all throughout their affair. And though she had been able to detect some guilt and sadness in Annabeth's eyes a couple times, the blonde had always seemed okay with it. No problem had gone through either's head for three months.

Now, after almost two months without being mildly romantic with each other, Piper had imagined this re-encounter as something relieving. She had thought this would make her jump happily around the whole ship; but it didn't.

As Piper lay there, listening to the soft breathing of the beautiful girl with whom she was sharing the warm bed, she noticed the only thing she could think of was how wrong this was. When she remembered the steps she heard earlier outside the room, she felt herself blush. The only thought of Percy sleeping across the hallway made her want to jump right out of bed and run for her own bedroom; it made her want to run out of the room, climb up the stairs and throw herself into the sea; it made her want to beg for Percy's forgiveness, even if he had no idea what was going on.

As Piper felt Annabeth shift around over her, she noticed her breathing had become louder and she tried to relax. After twenty minutes trying to control her fast heartbeat, her eyelids started to feel heavy, and before she could stop it, sleep caught her in its arms.

When her eyelids opened again, Piper noticed she was alone in the bed. She looked around and found her blonde friend sitting naked at the desk, working with Daedalus' laptop silently.

"What time is it?" Her I-just-woke-up voice echoed lightly on the empty walls and made Annabeth jump slightly.

The blonde turned on her seat and sent Piper the sexiest look with her gray eyes. "Time for you," she said, standing up.

Piper was able to read 2:08 on the laptop clock before Annabeth's athletic figure clouded her mind, providing her enough assurance as for not to mind the time anymore. Piper's eyes roamed all over Annabeth with a stunned look on them. Blushing, the blonde walked to the bed, straddled her friend and kissed her slowly.

Piper felt herself become drunk with Annabeth's essence and body, which seemed to radiate some kind of mind-hazing fog into the kiss. She felt the world spinning around her, but she didn't mind. The only thing that she was interested in was straddling her, stroking her and kissing her. Her hands pulled themselves up and caressed Annabeth's body as they had done so many times before, causing moans to escape into the kiss.

"I said it's _your_ turn," whispered Annabeth into the kiss. Before she could realize it, Piper was lying on her back, the blankets that covered her were now gone; her legs were spread eagle and her hands pressed Annabeth's head into her own crotch as her teeth bit on her lower lip painfully. The next few minutes flew by in a blur; the only thing Piper was able to notice were her own crazy breaths, a pillow in her mouth and what felt like Annabeth's entire body over—and inside—her, giving her the attention she had needed for a very long time. When Annabeth's mouth appeared to cover hers and swallow a loud moan, she kissed back instinctively, her hands no longer moving and her mind completely blank.

After she came, Annabeth laid lazily next to her, taking her waist in her arms and turning them to look at the wall. It took five minutes for Piper to feel well enough to talk and even when she did, the sound was pretty weak, which only made Annabeth laugh lightly.

"I can't believe you just did that." Annabeth hugged Piper's stomach and pressed her warm hands on her hipbones, making her shiver.

"We had two months, Pipes," whispered Annabeth into brown hair, "it should be obvious we both learned some stuff."

Piper heard Annabeth's playful smile in her tone and struggled to turn around, finding her body wonderfully stiffened by pleasure. "You're bluffing," she whispered after her failed attempt to roll her hips. "That was just desire coming out."

"And how was it?" said Annabeth looking at the wall in front of her.

"It was…" Piper hesitated as memories of Annabeth's naked body crossed her mind and urged her to say something that couldn't be expressed in words, only coming out with the simplest answer: "fantastic."

Annabeth sighed and rolled onto her back, patting Piper's shoulder lightly, so that they rolled together. Piper rested her head on her friend's shoulder as new troubled feelings invaded her. With tears moistening her eyes, she looked into Annabeth, and found her staring back at her.

In that moment, Piper knew they were both going through the same. She could read so many emotions in those gray eyes that had always been open doors for her, so many feelings; sadness was unnaturally mixed with such joy as it cannot be described; the ever-present excitement for whatever could come was plastered on her eyes as usual; the same love, care and tenderness of which Piper was receiver for a long time was there, too; and there was also the guilt.

It was the same guilt Piper detected earlier in herself; the same she had seen in Annabeth thousands of times before, though never as strong as it was now. Piper's desire to cry assaulted her then, stronger than ever. For the love and guilt that looked back at her were almost proportionate, which only mirrored her own confusion.

She placed her head softly on Annabeth's shoulder and tried to relax. Soon, the feeling of Annabeth's heartbeat, her own slow breathing and the unnatural silence in which the whole ship was immersed, were enough to lull her into sleep. She dozed off, without knowing it, at the same time as Annabeth, who thought her companion to be asleep already. In that moment, their minds were connected by the thoughts that ran through both their heads, and even if neither noticed, their bond grew stronger somehow.

"You guys don't mind if I go walk over there? I wanna see those big houses," Hazel trailed off as her voice was silenced by the distance.

As Piper saw her walk away, she cocked her head confusedly to one side, wondering what that tone meant. It had been a couple days now since she had noticed a small change in Hazel's behavior, especially when the three of them were alone, like now.

Annabeth walked slowly ahead of her, approaching the rail that looked into the sea. Piper followed silently, taking in every detail of the harbor through which they were walking, on their way to the place where they were supposed to find a ghost that might or might not help them on their quest before they went to Rome.

Piper looked back at Hazel, making sure she was far enough, only to find her eyeing them with a knowing smile. Hazel's eyebrows rose at Piper's gaze and she turned around. Piper furrowed slightly as she walked closer to Annabeth. When she was close enough, Annabeth's scent filled her nose and made her forget why they were here in the first place. She approached the blonde and raised her arms around her waist, placing her hands on the blonde's over the rail.

"Hey," she said, leaning her head into blond curls.

"Hey," said Annabeth, a smile obvious in her tone. They stood like that for a couple minutes before Annabeth's body tensed out of the blue, as if she had realized something was going on. She slowly turned around and scooted herself slightly away from Piper.

"What's wrong?" asked Piper, noticing Annabeth's thoughtful expression.

"Nothing," she said, trying not to sound so altered. "I was just thinking…" she seemed to be thinking in what to say for a moment, then sighed in frustration and looked at Piper in the eyes. "What are we doing, Pipes?"

Piper looked at the sea that extended to their right and shook her head, not knowing what to answer.

Earlier that morning, Piper had been completely willing to talk about this; unfortunately, Annabeth had been peacefully sleeping at that moment. Piper had left the room silently before anyone would wake up, so they hadn't talked at all.

Piper had no idea what to say. She was aware of how important it was for them to discuss their whole unintended love triangle, even if Percy was oblivious to it. She understood how much pressure Annabeth was in, for the decision was completely hers; that's exactly why Piper had been so patient with her friend. And now Annabeth was asking _her_, as if Percy was Piper's boyfriend instead of Annabeth's.

Piper walked away from Annabeth slowly, trying not to be too obvious. She looked at Hazel's direction and found her gazing at them intently.

"She knows," said Annabeth when Piper was about to talk. "I told her when we were in Atlanta," she answered to Piper's questioning stare. "I just… I needed someone else to know, I guess…" she bent her head and sighed sadly, looking at the floor. "It's been hard."

Piper just nodded, understanding. Becoming Annabeth's girlfriend, only to stop it three months later had been too hard for both; keeping it all secret, was even harder. If they ended up as "only fiends", their whole relationship would remain unknown, as if none of it had happened. That was too much for Piper, and seemingly, for Annabeth, too. Piper remembered her own intentions of telling Leo a couple months ago, when sadness for their stopped-relationship was being hard with her. Of course she understood.

After a silence extended a couple minutes between them, Annabeth seemed lost in thought. She blinked a couple times and looked at Piper in the eye.

"I know how hard this is to you, Piper," she said, her eyes moistening slightly at her own words, "and I swear on the Styx: I will tell you my decision before we reach Rome."

Piper felt her own tears threatening to spill, and brushed them off her eyes with the back of her hand. She was impressed that Annabeth had just said that, considering how much pressure she had upon herself. She leaned into Annabeth and kissed her tenderly, no longer caring if Hazel saw her. Through the kiss, Piper tried to express her gratitude to the girl in front of her, injecting as much love into it as she possibly could.

"Don't worry, Annabeth," she said, her voice cracking softly as she rubbed her nose against Annabeth's cheek; "It'll be okay."

* * *

**There it is. I have no idea when the next one's coming, hopefully next week, but who knows...?**

**Ideas have been bulging up in my head; unfortunately, most of them direct me towards my intention to become a serious writer, and now I feel Fanfiction's taking me away from that path, so this might be the last story I write here...**

**I guess no one cares, but if anyone would like to understand a bit better the read-and-guess nature of the chapter's division, you might like to read "Pedro Páramo", by Juan Rulfo... I don't know if it exists in English, but I guess it does: it's a fantastic book...**


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